I love the Apple TV 4K. Primarily, that’s because its picture and sound quality are far superior to that of other video streamers, but it’s also because it has lots of little useability features that just make it a pleasure to use and interact with. My favourite of those is one that I use most days, but it seems that some people don’t even know it exists.
Now, I’m not saying that it’s a completely unknown feature – you (yes, you) may well already know about it – but several Apple TV owners who I’ve spoken to recently, including What Hi-Fi?’s own Lewis Empson and my very own brother, were amazed when I told them about it, and they’ve used it regularly since.
So, I’m here to make the lives of more Apple TV owners a little bit more satisfying by sharing the tip with everyone else.
The feature in question is known colloquially as the ‘what did they say?’ feature, and it’s really just a neat Siri-related trick. If you’re watching something and you miss a bit of dialogue that you think might be important, simply hold down the Siri button on the side of the Apple TV’s remote and ask "What did he/she/they say?", and the Apple TV 4K will skip back 10 seconds, turn on subtitles so you can see what was said, and then automatically turn them back off again a few seconds later.
That’s it. Simple, hey? Yet also absolute genius. Whether you’ve missed the dialogue due to mumbling, a tough accent, too many other sound effects or because your partner picked precisely the wrong time to ask whether you’ve remembered to put the bins out, you can quickly and easily repeat it with subtitles.
The feature works with the Apple TV app, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and presumably more apps that I’ve not tested, and I heartily recommend that you give it a go.
MORE:
The Apple TV 4K is comfortably the best streamer, but only if you change these settings
Read the full Apple TV 4K review
These are the best media streamers you can buy right now
