Apple TV’s promised single sign-on feature is finally starting to roll out tvOS 10.1 and 10.2 developer beta users. Single sign-on isn’t available to the public yet, but the fact that developers have it means the official release isn’t too far off.
Single sign-on is a feature that lets Apple TV users enter their cable TV subscription credentials once so they auto-populate in content viewing apps. Apple showed off the feature as part of tvOS 10 earlier this year, but said we’d have to wait for it to show up.
As tvOS software updates started rolling out, single sign-on was still missing in action. We finally got a better idea of when it would show up when Apple announced its new TV app a couple weeks ago and said we’d see the new app and single sign-on at the same time before the end of the year.
Apple no doubt wants developers to test the feature before hoisting it onto regular users, hence it’s appearance now in the tvOS 10.1 and 10.2 developer betas. Once single sign-on officially available for everyone you can set it up by going to Settings > Accounts > TV Provider on your Apple TV.
[Thanks to Mac Rumors for the heads up]
I am really hoping single sign-on works as well as Apple was demonstrated. Trying to activate and manage all the different log-ins for the different apps is cumbersome.
I especially have problems with AMC’s app when trying to watch Halt and Catch Fire or The Walking Dead. For me, about 1 out of 3 uses of the AMC app says I haven’t activated my cable subscription and won’t let me watch episodes until I reactivate all over again. So I am definitely looking forward to single sign-on.