Apple realises that not everyone is getting along well with the new Apple TV remote, and it assures it is working on making things easier for users. The company has announced that it is working on a new Apple TV remote app that will give Siri Remote functionality on the iPhone.
Eddy Cue, Senior VP of Internet Software and Services at Apple, said that the company will release an iOS remote app for the Apple TV in the first half of 2016. He added that the remote app will replicate the features of the physical Siri-enabled Remote app which ships with the Apple TV.
“We’re working on a new Apple TV remote app that will give you the full functionality of the Siri Remote on your iPhone,” Cue said in an interview. “We’re hoping to ship that in the first half of next year.”
Siri integration is one of the biggest features of the fourth-generation Apple TV, which the company unveiled at its September event. The decision to extend this functionality to an iPhone app could substantially enhance the overall user experience. The company released tvOS 9.1 earlier this week that enabled users to use the Remote app and easily feed text input using their iPhone or iPad.
The company is aggressively pushing improvements to the new Apple TV. This week’s update to tvOS also added Siri integration to Apple Music on the Apple TV. The feature was previously scheduled for the next year. It will be interesting to see how the company, and arrival of new apps shape the new Apple TV in the next few months. In the interview, Cue said that the company is seeing a “tremendous developer interest,” noting that Apple TV already has more than 2,000 new apps.
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