tvOS 26 Now Available With Liquid Glass UI and Enhanced Apple TV Features

Apple today released tvOS 26, the latest version of the tvOS operating system that runs on the Apple TV 4K.

tvOS 26 Feature
tvOS 26 can be downloaded using the Settings app on the ‌‌‌Apple TV‌‌‌. Open up Settings and go to System > Software Update to get the new software. ‌‌‌Apple TV‌‌‌ owners who have automatic software updates activated will be upgraded to tvOS 26 automatically.

tvOS 26 uses the same Liquid Glass look that's available in Apple's other operating system updates, providing a unified design language across the company's platforms.

The ‌Apple TV‌ app has new poster art and an interface that displays more movies and shows at once, and profiles can be shown when the ‌Apple TV‌ wakes, making it easier for each person to select their personalized settings and recommendations.

When using Apple Music Sing, the iPhone can serve as a microphone, and it supports Lyrics Translation and Lyrics Pronunciation. The FaceTime app supports customized photos for each contact, and Live Captions now support French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish.

There are new Aerial screen savers captured in India, an option to personalize screen savers by selecting specific categories, and the ability to designate any AirPlay-compatible speaker as a permanent speaker for the ‌Apple TV‌.

tvOS 26 is compatible with the original ‌Apple TV‌ HD from 2015 as well as all ‌Apple TV‌ 4K models. Liquid Glass requires the second-generation ‌Apple TV‌ 4K or later.

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Top Rated Comments

6 weeks ago

my 2nd gen ATV 4k is sluggish on tvOS 18 ... could it be any worse???
Yes. In my limited experience absolutely
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
6 weeks ago
I just updated my 2nd and 3rd (latest) ATV4ks to tvOS 26 and my goodness on 2nd gen ATV4k the open and close animation is absurdly sluggish and not smooth.

Does anyone test these devices out?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
6 weeks ago

It's crazy that Liquid Glass is only on 2nd gen 4k and later. Like tvOS 26 Basic and tvOS 26 Ultimate lol.
It's not crazy, it requires much more processing power than prior UIs.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
6 weeks ago

my 2nd gen ATV 4k is sluggish on tvOS 18 ... could it be any worse???
Same thing happens every year, it will be sluggish for a bit, sometimes that happens on iphones
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
6 weeks ago

What led you to this conclusion? The Apple Developer docs that describe the passthrough capability https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfaudio/avaudiocontentsource/passthrough indicate tvOS 26+. Because this is an API update, it seems that individual apps would need to opt in to accommodating that change.
The actual documentation and header files associated with the enum states this value is for something else. Its not retained to the passing through of audio. It's an input to the AVAudioConverter. It's a hint on how to handle DRC when compressing to a format that supports DRC. The other possible values for the enum indicate this as well.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
6 weeks ago

What led you to this conclusion? The Apple Developer docs that describe the passthrough capability https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfaudio/avaudiocontentsource/passthrough indicate tvOS 26+. Because this is an API update, it seems that individual apps would need to opt in to accommodating that change.
macOS apps like Musc and TV have the pass through option available. Their tvOS equivalents do not.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)