One of the amazing things about the Apple TV is that you might have already had one for months and are still discovering new features on it. That's probably because the new App Store is growing at such a fast pace because it's so new, and you don't have to wade through Settings on Apple TV as often as you do on iPhone or iPad to manage iCloud or Bluetooth.
Since there's so much to discover about the new Apple TV, we thought we might as well get rid of it for you, so you can use some important stuff you might not have known. Take a look below at the top three hidden Apple TV features.
We've already mentioned that your Siri Remote may have special powers depending on the TV you have. If you have a relatively new TV with HDMI-CEC support, your Siri Remote is able to control your TV volume on its own without the need for a second remote.
Plus, with HDMI-CEC support enabled, you can actually use your Siri Remote to turn your TV on or off as well as the Apple TV. This means that if your TV and Apple TV are currently off, a single click will wake up Apple TV and turn on the TV screen. At the same rate, putting Apple TV into sleep mode when you're done can also automatically turn off your TV.
To set up this feature, simply follow the same instructions needed to enable HDMI-CEC and let your Siri Remote control the volume. Then under Remotes and Devices in Settings, make sure "Turn on your TV with your remote" is set to To . (The wording is different for some TVs.)
This is also where you can adjust the touch sensitivity of your remote.
It's not a feature Apple has really talked about much, but you can actually bring up an app switcher on Apple TV to multitask between all the recent apps you've opened. All you have to do is follow the same approach as on an iPhone:double-click the Home button on your Siri Remote (the button that has a TV icon on it) and voila.
In App Switcher mode, you can quickly switch between recently used apps. Also, if you swipe up on any app, it will snap and close just like on an iPhone.
Note: tvOS 9.2 is an update coming soon to Apple TV that will change the app switcher UI to match that of iOS 9. But everything will still work the same.This last hidden feature is especially handy for families or groups of people all using one Apple TV. You can actually store more than one iTunes account at a time.
This means that if someone has purchased a few TV shows on one account, another person has rented a movie on another account, and a child has purchased an entire movie on their account, you will be able to access all of them.
All you have to do is go to Settings choose Accounts then select iTunes and AppStore . You should already be signed in to one, but just below you can select Add New Apple ID to log in to someone else's account. Once you have two or more iTunes accounts linked to an Apple TV, you can return here in the Settings at any time to switch between them and their different purchases.
