The public beta of tvOS 18 is now available, with new features to show you information about the current tv show or movie and the ability to add soundtracks to your Apple Music playlists.
The iOS 18 public beta is getting most of the non-Prime Day attention today, but it's not the only beta that Apple has released. There are also new betas of watchOS, and of the Apple TV's tvOS. That latter update isn't dramatically different from what you're already using but it does introduce some nifty new features.
Public betas are nearly-finished versions that you can play with at your own risk. They're highly unlikely to destroy your Apple TV 4K or frighten your pets, but as they're unfinished there will be bugs – so if you decide to install the tvOS beta, don't be entirely surprised if your apps occasionally quit, stutter or generally do weird things. However judging by the online discussions around the developer beta, on which this is based, it's a pretty stable update.
Here's what's new.
What's new in the tvOS Public Beta?
For TV and movie viewers the big new feature here is called InSight, and it's similar to the X-Ray feature on Amazon's Fire devices: it tells you about the actors, characters and music in the show you're viewing, so for example you can click on the actor's name and see what else they've been in or add the song to your Apple Music playlists. It wasn't implemented in the first developer betas but it's in there now. There's also improved dialogue enhancement and subtitling, as well as support for 21:9 aspect ratio on projectors.
Apple Fitness+ on Apple TV has been significantly updated too with a personalised For You section, new search features and new awards to help motivate you. However, as with the iOS 18 beta, don't expect whizzy new Apple Intelligence features in this beta: they're still some months away.
The tvOS 18 beta is compatible with Apple TV models from 2015 onwards. Download instructions for the tvOS beta are available now on the Apple website.
