In a family of apathetic sleepers, suggesting a TV series or lengthy film they’re likely to enjoy is the best gift I can possibly give. Each might have their own unique consumptions—background fodder for laundry folding, afterwork darkroom escape, cozy universe and characters—but the intent remains the same: help them augment how they want to spend their free attention. Technology tends to have too many friction points to gift remotely.
For an aunt fond of true crime and dramas, putting on the TV adaptation of Hannibal while I was visiting amounted to a T-ball home run. I could’ve messaged her remotely to watch it sooner, but far too many inconveniences or uncertainties stood in the way. Would she launch the correct app on Apple TV? Would she search at the global level and be guided to an unnecessary purchase in iTunes? If she found it in Netflix, would she start from the pilot, or could someone else in the house have started viewing independently and left their progress at episode 4? Account for the probability of wine consumption and I’m left with weak confidence that remotely suggesting will get her watching it in the optimal free way, from the very beginning of the show.
Strong confidence only comes with in-person control and selection of content: There’s an immense opportunity to open the ‘Up Next’ interface in tvOS to remote authorized users. I’ve written on the potential for playlists in tvOS before, and this would be its natural expansion to enable sharing. I know I can curate movies, episodes, and web content for anyone that might naturally come up in Share Sheet on my iPhone. I want a streamlined interface that allows me to send suggested curated lists, for the local Apple TV consumer to confirm and start playing, and for them to pause and return to the playlists at their leisure. A more optimized sharing experience is just sitting there, waiting to be crafted using existing component pieces.
Having a universal ‘History’ view akin to the Music App would also be incredibly useful for people in a household that might want easy shortcuts to go back and share content again with other household guests.