If there’s one unsung feature of Apple’s streaming box, it’s the Apple TV app’s Up Next column, which alerts you to new shows, unfinished episodes, and sporting events without needing to jump around to various apps. Not every app is connected—most notably, Netflix is absent—but for the ones that are, it’s an excellent way to keep tabs on what you’re watching.
Ever since Apple TV arrived in 2016, Up Next has been front and center when you launch the app. That’s changing in tvOS 16.2. Now the first thing you’ll see is a “Featured” row of shows that you haven’t watched. It’s not advertising per se, in that it appears to only populate with shows from services you subscribe to, but it’s no less annoying.
In fact, now you can’t even see the Up Next row unless you scroll down. It may be a minor inconvenience, but it’s a fundamental change in how the app works. There’s nothing wrong with a Featured row—after all, Apple promotes its own TV+ shows all over the app—but it shouldn’t be the first thing you see.
On our Apple TV, it only appeared when we installed the tvOS 16.2 beta, but it’s not clear whether this is a change coming in tvOS 16.2 or if it will appear for users at some point. And it’s also possible that Apple scraps the change and keeps things the way they are.
