Along with a wealth of other new Apple information, the recent WWDC 2024 unveiled tvOS 18 and the new features that arrive along with it to Apple TV. One of the largest software announcements from Apple in quite awhile came with plenty of surprises, including some new things that may drastically improve the watching experience on Apple’s streaming device.
There is a lot that comes with tvOS 18, so let’s take a look at the new features and surprises.
What’s New with tvOS 18
Here’s a look at everything announced for tvOS 18 during WWDC 2024.
InSight Brings Apple TV+ Info to Users with tvOS 18
The largest feature to arrive to tvOS 18 is the new InSight feature. This allows users to access information about their favorite Apple TV+ content in real time. For example, you can watch an episode of Severance and find information about the actors within each episode, while also getting information about what music is playing.
Users will also be able to use this feature on their iPhone when they are using it as an Apple TV remote. It will be interesting to see if this feature expands within future generations of tvOS.
New Dialogue Enhancements
Personally, this is one my favorite new features, and it would honestly great to see this become an adopted standard. Thanks to computational audio and machine learning, tvOS 18 is getting better Enhanced Dialogue. What this means is that speech in movies and television shows will be at the forefront over other sounds. This means you’ll actually be able to hear Tom Cruise when he’s speaking over an explosion.
The new Enchance Dialogue features are going to pair well with HomePod speakers, built-in television speakers or HDMI speakers, AirPods, Bluetooth devices and content that is supported by iPad and iPhone.
Improvements to Subtitles
Along with the new InSight feature and dialogue enhancements, there are improvements to subtitles as well. Within tvOS 18, subtitles will now appear during select moments. This includes when users skip back to certain moments, or when the language of a show or movie doesn’t match the language of the device.
The new subtitles will look fantastic on projectors thanks to support for 21:9 resolutions. Additionally, tvOS 18 also introduces screensavers. New screensavers include one featuring everyone’s favorite Snoopy and Woodstock from Peanuts.
How to Get tvOS 18
Currently a developer beta is available for Apple TV users, though this will require being a part of the Apple Developer Program. Public betas should begin rolling out over the summer. You can check out our guide here to learn more about the developer and public betas.
For an official release, expect fall 2024. You can also check which Apple TV models will support tvOS 18 here.
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