One of the most underrated characteristic of Apple TV is its gorgeous screensavers that show airy views of breathtaking locations in vivid 4K. In a mildly alarming ontogeny , it ’s been describe that the YouTube app for Apple TV has recently been set up to overthrow the system screensaver and run its own lower - tone combining weight .
By default , the Apple idiot box commence showing a screensaver after it ’s been pass on unused for five arcminute . But if you ’ve get under one’s skin the YouTube app clear , this will rather trigger off itsownscreensaver just before that point , harmonise to the visual effect creative person and podcasterJoe Rosensteel . This seem to be a late growth , given that an earlier reading of the app that Rosensteel checked on a different Apple TV did not exhibit the same behaviour .
It ’s not unmortgaged how this part hap or why the tvOS scheme let it , but we take Apple is investigating a elbow room to block it in tvOS 17.5 .
At the moment this is simply annoying . The Apple TV ’s screensaver is , as you would probably expect from an Apple creation , visually opulent and well - designed . But the YouTube screensaver is just a ragbag of low - timbre still image from various videos . Or , spoiled still , if you ’ve fetch one specific telecasting open and paused , the app will curl the thumbnail graphics for that TV . As Rosensteel quite reasonably find , “ Some of the bad sins of mankind exist in YouTube thumbnails , and they ’re not designed to be screensavers . ” Aside from the poor quality of the graphics , many of the images he saw being used have static textbook and logo , which is n’t idealistic for a screensaver .
But this may point to more pernicious behavior in the future because YouTube is unlikely to be concerned in consort its own screensaver for the fun of it . At some percentage point , Rosensteel predict , the company will attempt to leverage this veridical land to execute adverts or boost selected subject matter . And other apps could attempt to tusk in on the racket too .
Right now , there ’s a fairly wanton solution to give up this happening . While the Apple TV ’s screensaver kicks off after five minutes by default , this can easily be set to a lower time value . Change this to three minutes and it will pre - empt YouTube and prevent its screensaver from ever being come across . If the YouTube app ever gets canny enough to detect the system setting and undercut them by two minute , we ’ll all be in trouble – but maybe Apple will abuse in and have a word .
