tvOS 26.4 Adds Genius Browse, More New features
Ryan Christoffel reports this week for 9to5 Mac Apple’s newly-released tvOS 26.4 update brings with it three new features for Apple TV 4K. The marquee addition is something Apple calls Genius Browse, which Christoffel notes is a throwback of sorts.
“In the tradition of iTunes’ old Genius feature, Genius Browse offers TV show and movie recommendations for users. Available by scrolling down the Home tab in the TV app, you’ll see a variety of categories like ‘Good for a Date Night’ or ‘Based on a Book.’ These categories refresh regularly, and each one offers a list of titles to check out,” Christoffel wrote on Tuesday. “The nice aspect of Genius Browse is that within each list of recommended titles, you can find additional suggestions that are related to any specific title you select. So there are multiple layers of recommendations waiting for you.”
Recommendations cover not only Apple TV, but also HBO Max, Prime Video, and other services. Christoffel published an overview of Genius Browse last week, calling the exclusive-to-Apple TV feature as "a powerful solution to improve content discovery.”
From an accessibility standpoint, Genius Browse has potential. I haven’t played around with it yet, but it’s easy to see how, for instance, neurodivergent people who may have trouble cataloging what content lives where, that Genius Browse collates suggestions based on themes should make it easier to find something to watch. Likewise, that the TV app supports Continue Watching from a million services not named Netflix makes getting back to what you were watching much more accessible. Broadly speaking, the advent of Genius Browse is a sobering reminder at the backwards nature of the tvOS user interface. To wit, the Genius Feature, while worthy in its current form, really and truly should be part of the main screen—not exclusively siloed to the TV app. As I’ve argued numerous times over the years, tvOS could be so much more compelling on a big, bright screen like that of my 77” LG C3 OLED. You can argue the static grid of icons is simpler and more accessibly understood, but I’d contend it’d be more accessible to help users find something to watch, be it new or old, right then and there. This is Google TV’s conceit, whose Android underpinnings notwithstanding, is chockfull of good, very clever ideas Apple should absolutely steal for its own television platform.
This is why I keep saying I’m waiting for Apple to give tvOS its iOS 7 “glow-up” moment.
Elsewhere in his story, Christoffel says tvOS 26.4 also includes new customization options for subtitles (ahem, captions) which aren’t nestled in the bespoke Accessibility submenu in Settings, as well as finally removes the legacy TV Shows and Movies apps.
