YouTube App On Apple TV Gets A New Look, Full Content And Better Features

YouTube has updated its experience on the Apple TV, bringing the full video catalog from the web to its software for the Apple media streamer. The app also now offers improved recommendations for signed in users, better search with predictive results, subscribe capabilities for channels and a new look that looks like a much better overall experience for discovery and navigation.

The revamped YouTube app’s predictive search might be the most useful if you’re using a traditional IR remote for input, and of course not having a limited catalog is way more useful overall for a consumption experience that mimics what you’re used to on other platforms.

Apple’s treatment of third-party software on the Apple TV means that updates aren’t as frequent as they are in the App Store on iPhone and iPad, but lately the company has been increasing the pace at which new content partners are added. Big changes to legacy apps like this one will do even more to help make sure the platform stays fresh, now that there’s ample competition out there, including from Google itself.

The new YouTube app experience shouldn’t require an update on the user side, but realize you’ll also get something not so great with this change – ads will appear on YouTube videos. That’s also what’s enabling the viewing of the entire catalog on the media streaming device, though, so it’s a necessary evil for greatly expanded functionality.