Amid all the opposite bulletins at WWDC 2025 yesterday, tvOS 26 handed by with barely a ripple. Out of a complete 92 minutes of keynote time, it was on display screen for lower than 5 (an enormous chunk of which was a trailer for upcoming TV+ reveals and films), and on the time of scripting this, the software program doesn’t even have its personal tab on Apple’s OS preview web page.
However that is usually the best way with main Apple occasions: there’s a lot to speak about that worthwhile launches get misplaced within the hubbub. And tvOS 26 does have some attention-grabbing upgrades. There are consumer profiles to select from whenever you wake the Apple TV, computerized logins for third-party apps, everlasting AirPlay speaker connections, new aerial screensavers, and you should use your iPhone as a microphone and enter machine in Apple Music’s Sing karaoke mode.
The largest improve, nevertheless, is the Liquid Glass visible redesign that’s coming, in a single kind or one other, to all of Apple’s units. The quick method of describing that is to say that menus and buttons are clear and glossy, with extra interactive components, however you actually need to see it to know the influence this may have. It appears, on this reporter’s opinion at the least, very nice.
Apple
(As a facet observe, it’s price declaring that Liquid Glass doesn’t look as starkly futuristic as iOS 7 did in 2012. Somewhat than designing for the long run, Apple seems to have designed for the current, and whereas that is nice for now, it’s debatable how properly this may age.)
tvOS 26 can run on an honest vary of Apple TVs: MacRumors experiences that the developer beta, impressively, is suitable with all HD or 4K Apple TVs, going again to the mannequin launched in 2015. However the unhealthy information is that the 2015 HD Apple TV, and the 1st-gen 4K mannequin that got here after it in 2017, don’t get the total vary of tvOS 26 options and upgrades.
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Most significantly, as Apple quietly confirms in a footnote of its tvOS 26 press launch, Liquid Glass is just obtainable on the 2nd-gen Apple TV 4K from 2021 and the Third-gen 4K from 2022.
Oh, and the function that permits you to use your iPhone as a Sing enter machine solely works on the Third-gen 4K mannequin. And also you want an iPhone 11 or later (or one that may run iOS 26), for that matter.
If you’d like the total tvOS 26 expertise, in different phrases, it could be time to purchase a brand new mannequin. One could also be on the best way, or you possibly can examine our value comparability device under to be sure you’re not paying a penny greater than you could.
