Apple's Best tvOS Upgrade Solves 1 of My House's Biggest Arguments

Apple's Best tvOS Upgrade Solves 1 of My House's Biggest Arguments

My wife and I agree on many things, but what to watch is not one of them. When we try to watch something together, it takes us too long to find something on Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, or Amazon that makes sense. Occasionally, we find something new that we both enjoy. Most recently, that's been the case with "Girls5Eva". But more often, we settle on reruns of "The Office" or "Parks & Rec" or she stays downstairs to watch something else while I go upstairs and watch one thing.

That's why I'm intrigued by the new "For All of You" feature in Apple tvOS and want to get an Apple TV 4K.

For those of you who didn't hear the WWDC21 keynote, one of the new features of tvOS 15 that was announced is called "For All of You". This is a new line in the interface that looks at all the viewing preferences of all registered users and recommends where those interests overlap. You can set it to see only two users, or as many users as you have profiles on your Apple TV.

For All of You will be rolled out in the next update of tvOS 15, which is currently in developer preview and will be released in public beta in July.

As for movies and TV shows, my interests skew toward action, sci-fi, DIY, cooking and food-related content. My wife tends to prefer murder documentaries and anything with John Krasinski in it. When Amazon released "Jack Ryan," it was a rare moment when our interests overlapped, like a Venn diagram of streaming.

But more often than not, I retreat to the attic to watch the latest episode of Forged in Fire or The Bad Batch. That's okay sometimes, but it's nice to do something together and enjoy a shared experience. This past weekend we watched "Coco" with our kids, and we both cried more than our two-year-old.

"For All of Us" was not the highlight feature of tvOS. It was probably "SharePlay," which allows you to create a viewing party with friends via FaceTime. This feature works with several streaming video apps, including Disney Plus and HBO Max, as well as music apps. This would help create a more collaborative viewing experience, with or without pandemics.

Among our favorite streaming devices, the Apple TV 4K is not at the top of our list. It's expensive, and Apple just recently fixed the remote control. But if Apple TV's "For All of You" presents more shows and movies that the two of us would enjoy, I'd give it a shot.

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