My Apple TV 4K offers the best streaming experience I’ve ever had, far better than my TV’s built-in interface. But my favorite thing about the Apple TV has absolutely nothing to do with streaming.
If you’re unfamiliar, the Apple TV is Apple’s physical streaming box, not to be confused with the app of the same name. It can deliver 4K Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and Dolby Atmos content and works with all the major streaming services. And—my favorite part—if you let it idle for a while, it’ll switch to an aerial screensaver.
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Apple TV’s Aerial Screensavers Are Stunning
When you let the Apple TV idle for a few minutes, it’ll start playing one of its aerial screensavers. These are gorgeous aerial videos shot in beautiful locations all across the world. They play in super slow motion, letting you glide peacefully over the landscape and giving subtle life to the images. You can also easily find out where each video was shot by tapping the Siri remote, or swipe to the next option at your pleasure.
Each video lasts about five or six minutes before cycling onto the next breathtaking visual. Each time the screensaver starts, it’ll choose a random video to play from the options. And Apple periodically changes the library of videos, so you’ll often spot new videos coming in and out of rotation if you watch them often.
Aerial screensavers aren’t the only option. If you have a second-generation Apple TV 4K, you can also choose a playful Snoopy screensaver, or cycle through portraits and photos from your library. But the aerial screensavers are by far my favorite option, for a few reasons.
Apple TV 4K
Immerse yourself in stunning 4K HDR with Apple TV 4K. Stream your favorite content with exceptional clarity and color, powered by the A15 Bionic chip. Enjoy seamless access to apps, games, and Apple Originals, all with the convenience of Siri voice control and personalized recommendations.
All the Reasons I Love Aerial Screensavers
It should go without saying that I enjoy looking at Apple’s aerial screensavers because they’re beautiful. But, beyond that, there are several other reasons I appreciate having them play on my TV.
They Inspire Me to Travel More
By tapping the touch surface on my Siri Remote, the aerial screensavers display a little bit of text in the bottom corner, explaining where this particular screensaver was shot. It might be a particular section of the Great Wall of China, downtown Los Angeles, an Egyptian coral reef, a Chilean mountain range, or any number of other tantalizing destinations.
I’ve done my fair share of traveling—and have even visited a handful of screensaver destinations—but my bucket list of other places to go has only grown from admiring these screensavers over the years. Many destinations are places I hadn’t come across before now.
They’re More Engaging Than Static Images
My TV has some built in screensavers as well. Unlike the Apple TV, this displays vibrant artwork, making it feel as though I’ve got some original paintings decorating my living room. This is nice, but the static imagery can feel stale. It doesn’t draw my attention in the same way, and never sucks me in with the hypnotic slow motion found in Apple’s aerial screensavers.
They’re Hypnotic, Without Being Distracting
When I’m having guests over, I typically play some music on my Apple TV, then get the aerial screensavers going. The movement adds more life to the room than I’d get with static images—and the beautiful locations often spark conversations around them—but they aren’t so eye catching that they steal everybody’s focus.
The gentle motion and easy pace of the videos blends nicely into the background, offering something to glance at during a lull in conversation but not being such a big draw that everybody stops talking to watch them.
They’re Completely Ad-Free
When the screensavers are playing on my TV, there’s nothing else going on the screen. That sounds like it should be the status quo, but ads are infiltrating more and more places these days, so I’m still glad to see nothing like that tainting these videos. As an example of how annoying it could be, you only need to look at YouTube adding ads to the pause screen on TVs.
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How to Enable Apple TV’s Aerial Screensavers
These screensavers should be set up by default on your Apple TV, so you just need to wait a few minutes without touching the remote before they start up. Alternatively, you can manually start them by going to the Home screen, then pressing the “Back” or “Menu” button an extra time.
If none of this is working, however, you can check the screensavers are enabled from your Apple TV settings:
- Open the “Settings” app on your Apple TV.
- Navigate to “Screen Saver.”
- Open the “Current Selection” page and select “Aerials.”
- You can also open the “Start After” option to choose how quickly the screensavers start.
I could wax lyrical about the beauty of these slow-mo screensavers forever. They’re one of several features that make the Apple TV better than all the streaming box competition in my eyes, and I’ve spent more hours than I care to count watching them in a trancelike state. I hope you get to enjoy them, too.
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