Apple has officially released tvOS 26, bringing one of the most visually striking updates to Apple TV in years. The update introduces the Liquid Glass design language, cinematic enhancements in the Apple TV app, new features for Apple Music Sing, and smarter ways to manage profiles and calls. With tvOS 26, Apple continues to align the big-screen experience with its broader ecosystem, offering better integration with iPhone, HomePod, and FaceTime.
The highlight of this release is the new Liquid Glass design. This interface introduces a more expressive visual layer that refracts and reflects content in real time, drawing more focus to what’s on screen. It reflects Apple’s broader design direction across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and watchOS 26, where personalization and immersive visuals are central themes. Alongside this, the update makes the Apple TV app more cinematic with poster art that shows off more movies and shows at a glance, making browsing easier and more visually engaging.
Here is a detailed look at what’s new in tvOS 26:
This update introduces a stunning new design with Liquid Glass, brings cinematic poster art to the Apple TV app, adds support for iPhone as a mic for Apple Music Sing, and makes it easier to choose your profile to see personalized content recommendations. This update also includes performance and stability improvements.
Design
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Liquid Glass introduces a more expressive experience across tvOS as it refracts and reflects content in real time, and brings even more focus to what you’re watching.1
Apple TV app
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Cinematic poster art displays more movies and shows at a glance.
Apple Music
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Apple Music Sing2 adds support for iPhone as a handheld mic, amplifying your voice through TV speakers.
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Friends and family can use their iPhone to add songs to the queue, react with onscreen emoji, and take control of the microphone.3
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Lyrics Translation and Pronunciation4 help you understand the meaning behind your favorite songs and makes it easy to sing along, even if you don’t know the language.
FaceTime
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Contact Posters1 make starting a FaceTime call easier and more personal by displaying customized photos and names onscreen.
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Live Captions1 now support Cantonese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish.
Call notifications
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Incoming call notifications for phone and FaceTime audio calls help you answer them on connected HomePod speakers, or your iPhone.
Profiles
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Profiles can now be displayed when Apple TV wakes from sleep so you can quickly access your movies, shows and music.
Screen savers
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Landscapes of India offer breathtaking new screen savers.
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Aerial screen savers now include an option to let you choose which stunning views are displayed.
AirPlay
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Any AirPlay-enabled speaker can now be set as the default output for Apple TV.
1. Available on Apple TV 4K (2nd generation and later).
2. Available on Apple TV 4K (3rd generation).
3. Available on iPhone SE (2nd generation and later) and iPhone 11 and later.
4. Lyrics Translation available for select songs in the following languages: English to Chinese (simplified), English to Japanese, Korean to Chinese (simplified), Korean to English, Korean to Japanese, and Spanish to English. Lyrics Pronunciation available for select songs in the following scripts: Cantonese to Jyutping, Chinese (simplified) to Pinyin, Chinese (traditional) to Pinyin, Hindi to Romanized Hindi, Japanese to Romanized Japanese, Korean to Katakana, Korean to Romanized Korean, and Punjabi to Romanized Punjabi.
