Apple Seeds First Beta of tvOS 16 to Developers

They didn’t even say a word about it

tvOS better get FaceTime and Camera Continuity.

The announcement of 'Matter' seemed like filler news. This was months, maybe even years ago.

Apple sure has not been putting much effort into Apple TV OS.

tvOS 16 beta (20J5299n)
[SPOILER="tvOS 16 Beta Release Notes"]
App Store
New Features

* AppTransaction ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/apptransaction') allows developers to cryptographically verify that the app was purchased on the App Store. (86739279)
* A property environment is included in Product.SubscriptionInfo.RenewalInfo ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/product/subscriptioninfo/renewalinfo') and Transaction ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/transaction'). It represents the server environment in which the RenewalInfo and Transaction occurred, respectively. (85988753)
* The recentSubscriptionStartDate property is included in Product.SubscriptionInfo.RenewalInfo ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/product/subscriptioninfo/renewalinfo'). It represents the date that marks the start of the most recent period of continuous subscription. A period is considered a continuous subscription if there’s no more than a 60-day gap between any two subscribed periods. (86599570)
* The priceLocale ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skproduct/1506145-pricelocale') property is included in Product ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/product'). Use this property to format price values deriving from the product’s decimal price. (81480683)
* Present the offer code redemption sheet with the offerCodeRedemption(isPresented:eek:nCompletion:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/View/offerCodeRedemption(isPresented:onCompletion:)')view modifier in your SwiftUI apps. (85321941)
* The StoreKit Messages API allows you to control when App Store messages are displayed in your app. (85321880)

DeviceDiscoveryUI
Known Issues

* PIN-paired devices are shown as discovered devices but aren’t supported. (93993830)
* When establishing connection to Apple Watch, the App Not Installed notification is missing if the corresponding app isn’t already installed on Apple Watch. (93064321)
* When displaying the connection authorization alert on devices, the Apple TV name might appear as “null”. (90062941)
* In SwiftUI the Fallback view for DeviceDiscovery might not correctly render on unsupported hardware. (93933154)
* In the device picker, supported devices might appear flagged incorrectly as “Device not supported”.

Game Controller
New Features

* Many additional Bluetooth and USB game controllers are supported by the Game Controller framework on macOS 13, iOS 16, and tvOS 16 and later. (82409809)

Media Experience
Known Issues

* Settings doesn’t show Calibrated after completing Wireless Audio Sync. (91144719)

Siri
Known Issues

* Siri might not reliably find and play music that isn’t in your Apple Music library on Apple TV. (94361633)
Workaround: Add music to your library before asking Siri to play it, or search and play it directly from the Music app.

StoreKit
New Features

* All StoreKit ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit') APIs are now annotated for sendability and main actor isolation. (84157048)

Swift
Resolved Issues

* Fixed: Using @Environment(\.dismiss) no longer causes a view to be invalidated when the Environment changes. (86771246)

Known Issues

* Network.framework resolved an issue that could cause NWBrowser, NWConnection, NWConnectionGroup, NWEthernetChannel, NWListener, and NWPathMonitor to trigger a retain cycle when various Handler blocks are set. Starting with macOS 13, iOS 16, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16, if software using Network.framework targets these releases as the minimum OS, the object releases any blocks they captured once cancelled, breaking the retain cycle. (89677097)
Workaround: For software targeting older versions, the retain cycle can be broken by setting the handler blocks to nil after canceling the object.

SwiftUI
New Features

* You can now place a TextField ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/TextField') in an Alert ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/Alert') by using alert modifiers that accept a ViewBuilder ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/ViewBuilder'). (64819930)

Known Issues

* SwiftUI views log to the console [UIFocus] <typename> implements focusItemsInRect: - caching for linear focus movement is limited as long as this view is on screen. (93428139)
* Passing multiple children to a custom Layout fails to compile. (92914226)
* For control, Section ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/Section'), or other views that have a Label ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/Label'), the ViewBuilder ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/ViewBuilder') content now automatically arranges and styles multiple views as hierarchical elements, such as title and subtitle. If the label views are intended to be arranged horizontally rather than hierarchically, wrap the views within an HStack ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/HStack'). (85184563)

[/SPOILER]

If they would allow us to put purchased movies into custom folders then tvOS would be complete.

There are a TON of features that tvOS can receive.

The Home Screen is pretty useless right now. The top part should be locked when you scroll down and each app you go over should update the top deck

Up Next should be exposed on the Home Screen and not just in the TV app. In fact most of the stuff in the TV app should be on the Home Screen and the TV app should be renamed to TV+

Add the FaceTime app. Allow you to use your iPhone or iPad as a camera / mic

Make SharePlay OS wide with PIP

Add a TV version of safari

Add more to the control center

Add audio passthrough support

Add widgets: Trending trailers, trending videos (across services), weather, sports, recently viewed/saved