We have now a brand new developer beta for tvOS 18 — the software program that runs on Apple TV units — and with it comes our first have a look at a significant new function. InSight is Apple’s reply to Amazon Prime Video’s X-Ray, which supplies fast and quick access to who’s in a scene, and what music could also be accompanying it.
Other than some primary person interface variations like fonts and design components — InSight definitively seems to be and seems like Apple, and X-Ray retains Prime Video’s less-sleek motif — they principally work the identical. Whereas a film or present is taking part in, you may pause or press down (the latter takes you straight to the information) to see thumbnails of the actors on-screen, together with their actual identify (or stage identify, we suppose), and the character’s identify. Click on by means of one of many thumbnails and also you’ll get extra details about the actor, and straightforward hyperlinks to different movies and exhibits they seem in, in addition to roles they’ve served in another capability. Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein, for instance, has film and collection thumbnails, and he additionally has tiles for producing and writing.
And Apple could be very sensible about the way it handles this. Whereas all of the associated film and collection thumbnails are in the identical fashion, the place they take you will depend on the place the content material is definitely accessible. It is perhaps one thing accessible on Amazon Prime Video or Hulu or Plex – or another platform that performs properly with Apple’s TV app. (Presumably meaning you received’t discover any associated content material that’s solely on Netflix, which stays a holdout.)
InSight additionally hyperlinks you to music that’s taking part in on display screen. Clicking into it doesn’t routinely open the track, nevertheless it does add it to a “Saved Songs” playlist in Apple Music. That’s properly performed.
The InSight function is presently solely accessible within the tvOS 18 developer beta, so these not residing on the bleeding edge should wait a bit earlier than it seems within the TV app on Apple TV {hardware}. And it’s at all times attainable that issues will probably be tweaked earlier than from time to time.
However to this point, so good.
