Welcome to your new set-top box.
The fourth-generation Apple TV is here. It brings Siri, third-party apps and game controllers, a new Home screen, Apple Music, and so much more to your television. Here's everything you need to know to get started.
If you want a quick guide on getting your Apple TV up and running, we've got walkthroughs for setting up your set top box with either your iOS device, or manually.
Meet the new Apple TV
Apple's new set-top box retains the sleek black look of its predecessor—albeit with a few changes. It's a thicker, taller box now, omitting its digital audio out port in favor of a single HDMI port, power cable, Ethernet port, and USB-C service port.
Inside that midnight shell, the Apple TV packs some impressive hardware, a neat new remote, and great new software.
Hardware
Internally, the new Apple TV has gotten a major upgrade since its last update in 2012: It now sports a 64-bit A8 processor with 2GB of RAM, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and 32GB or 64GB storage.
The Retina revolution hasn't quite reached the Apple TV yet: You're still looking at 1080p resolution output from Apple's fourth-generation set top box, though you can now view it at either 30fps or 60fps.
Siri Remote
The new Apple TV comes with the newly-redesigned Siri Remote: Not only does it have the same Menu and Play/Pause buttons we know and love from previous Apple TV models, but it also offers a Home button to return to the main screen, volume controls, a touchpad and embedded click, and if you're in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, or the United States, Siri functionality.
The Siri Remote is designed to navigate through the Apple TV's interface, keyboard, and apps, but you can also use it as a motion-sensitive game controller and turn it horizontally for other game or app uses.

You can navigate the new Apple TV by using the touchpad at the top of the remote; to select an item, tap or press firmly to click on the touchpad.
The Home button (looks like a TV) automatically returns you to the Home screen, no matter where you are within an app. You can double-press it to display all currently-running apps as title cards and switch between them, iOS-style.
For the lucky countries that have access to Siri, you'll be able to ask your Apple TV to search for your favorite shows; look up sports scores and the weather; check stocks; open apps, play music, and a lot more. (If Siri isn't available in your country, pressing the Siri button will automatically open the Search app.)
The Siri Remote uses a Lightning port to charge: You can plug it in to any existing lightning cable or dock you already own, and it charges quickly; fully-charged remotes should last around three months before needing another power-up.
You can currently have only one Siri Remote connected at a time, though you can use third-party controllers, universal remotes, or a previous-generation Apple TV remote simultaneously.
Third-party controllers and accessories

If the Siri Remote isn't quite cutting it, you can augment your Apple TV with a number of different accessories.
Universal remotes work with the new Apple TV, as do third-party Made For iPhone (MFi) game controllers; you can also connect Bluetooth headphones to your Apple TV for a more personal listening experience, and Bluetooth keyboards for greater typing control.
You can simultaneously connect a maximum of two Bluetooth devices to your Apple TV at one time: This means you can either have two third-party game controllers connected, or a game controller and Bluetooth headphones.
If specific apps support them, you can also connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your Apple TV to use as an auxiliary controller. Outside apps, however, there's currently no great way to control your Apple TV with your iPhone besides limited support in the company's own Remote app.
The interface

The fourth-generation Apple TV is powered by tvOS, Apple's set-top version of iOS. Unlike its predecessor, tvOS's interface is primarily off-white, with big, colorful rectangular icons that, when selected, display in parallax (they shimmy ever so slightly when moving your finger on the touchpad).

The top row of the tvOS Home screen is called your Top Shelf: Like with your Dock on iOS, you can choose up to six apps to reside there. When selected, Top Shelf apps are also allowed to display additional preview content along the top of the screen; for example, Hulu displays a list of currently-popular shows on its streaming network.

All your other apps live below the Top Shelf, arranged in rows of six. You can move an app by selecting it with the touchpad and clicking and holding; release the click and swipe to move the app up, down, or side-to-side on your Home screen.
Meet your new Apple TV's apps

By default, your Apple TV ships with the following apps:
- iTunes Movies: Movies from the iTunes Store, including your previously purchased or rented content.
- iTunes TV Shows: TV shows from the iTunes Store, including your previously purchased or rented content.
- The App Store: The Apple TV's store for third-party TV apps.
- Photos: An app for viewing your current iCloud Photo Library, Photo Stream, and Shared Photo Streams.
- Music: An app for your personal music collection and access to the entire Apple Music library, including music videos.
- Search: The Apple TV's universal search bar.
- Computers: Any iTunes music and video libraries you've added to Home Sharing will show up here.
- Settings: The place to change your Apple TV's settings.
In addition to these stock apps, the fourth-generation Apple TV launches with an App Store chock-full of third-party apps and games for your television. You can see every currently-shipping app in this video below:
Though tvOS apps and iOS apps have different underlying code, Apple is allowing developers to sell their apps in "Universal" bundles: This means that you may get the tvOS version of an app for free if you already have its iOS counterpart. You can check to see if you have any tvOS apps available for download by going to App Store > Purchased.
Once you've downloaded and installed some apps, you can launch any program by selecting it and clicking on it; to exit an app at any time, click on the Home button, or repeatedly click the Menu button to back out of settings.
Note: Apps take up limited local storage
The Apple TV's tvOS apps use on-demand resources to keep your local file size as small as possible: This means that you can install more apps and games without worrying that they'll eat up your 32GB or 64GB storage space.
If you want to further control how storage space is used per-app, you can go to Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage.
Other questions?
We hope you enjoy your new Apple TV! If you have any specific questions or requests, drop them in the comments and we'll try and tackle them ASAP. In the meantime, you can also check out our Apple TV tips channel for everything we've written on it so far.

Reader comments
How to use Apple TV: The ultimate guide
How do I get Crossy Road to pair with my iPhone for multiplayer?
Doesn't look like it's built in yet. :(
Built into Crossy Road or the Apple TV?
Crossy Road. tvOS supports multiplayer games from 1.0.
Thanks. Strange that the TV App shows multiplayer but the phone version can't connect.
It took me awhile to find but its in the iPhone crossy road game itself. On the bottom right, choose the arrow icon and then the controller icon.
In our living room we have iPads and iPhones, usually plugged in and charging. I'm wondering what happens when you say Hey Siri into the remote, have you found that your other devices also respond to the call? Or does the remote send them a signal that says, "I got this."
So you don't need to say Hey Siri, you just press and hold the Siri button on the remote. Thus, no trigger. :)
Nice. An elegant solution as always. Thanks for all your tips!
Has anyone figured out how to change the Name of the Apple TV? I have 4 Apple TV's in my house, all named by location. I can't figure out how to name my new one! I've been through every menu option and never saw a way to change the name.
Settings, AirPlay, Apple TV Name
Can you download movies and TV shows to local storage or can you only stream?
You can download, but there's no way to say "keep this indefinitely" if you're trying to store it for a trip or something of that like.
How can I use Siri to search my large local iTunes library? The interface isn't any different, shows aren't summarized they are listed by Season, and now the touchpad takes multiple flicks to move down a very long list of TV Shows. I was at least hoping for an updated interface with search, or a list by Alphabet, or at least the grouping of shows by name, not season..
Siri doesn't currently support searching Home Sharing libraries, sadly. Hopefully in a future update!
Along the same lines, does universal search integrate into a Home Share library? I try to download a movie once and then keep it on a Mac Mini in a closet to avoid streaming a movie multiple times. Clicking through 175+ movies to get World War Z is not awesome. (I know I can click and hold to have it zoom by)
Wow that's not good :( Hope it will come.... it's in Itunes :)
Also my concern now... Everything i played from local iTunes library is in Dolby Surround and not Dolby Digital 5.1 like my previous Apple TV :( And can't seem to find how to fix it
Got it... but doesn't seem to have a set default.... like before... :(
OK. For the life of me and can't work out how to tell my new AppleTV to play a playlist in random (Shuffle) order. I've even tried asking Siri nicely. No go. Any ideas?
Select playlist > More button (...) > Shuffle.
Hey thanks Ren. So on further investigation, some playlists offer the more menu with shuffle and some don't. Thi is weirding me out.
Mixed feelings on the remove.. it's to small .. if it has a touch pad and that small I find I'm often while holding it accidentally touching the touch pad and doing things I don't want to...
I can't turn Siri On, it's Off and ghosted. Sure I'm in Sweden but I have English selected as language and I don't want Siri in Swedish. Is this not possbile just because I'm in Sweden? Can't believe it. Why on earth not? I've used Siri in english for years on my iPhones.
I would love to get started with mine... However, the lovely remove came DOA!
Can't pair the iPhone with Apple TV.. Latest software.. Any ideas?
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Annoying detail...when accessing content from my local shared library, the previous generation Apple TV would pass Dolby Digital to my A/V receiver automatically even if the file contained a stereo track, as well. The current version defaults to the stereo track which I include for compatibility with other devices. If the file only contains a surround track then it will pass it to the receiver...not looking forward to re-encoding my entire movie library for this new device... This behavior occurs whether the audio setting is automatic or surround.
Is this a bug that might get fixed?
I can't believe Keyboards won't connect. I have extremely long "1 Password" generated passwords. (of coarse because everyone on iMore told me I should do so last year, great advice) Out of the box, the new Apple TV shouldn't be as difficult to sign into App's as a PS3. I am very upset that the Netflix App no longer navigates like the 3rd gen TV, but now like the dreaded PS3, smart TV, and iOS app navigation. Thats not Apples fault, I don't think?
Like the post above from Solamar, I would have liked the remote to be larger. Hopefully I can program a URC or Crestron remote to work it. It's a great product and I like the volume programming, but for the audiophile customers with large systems, it feels like another remote that will live in the drawer with all the other cheap remotes. I know this is a small market of customers, and it's not fair to beat up Apple these concerns. But this is a common occurrence for all my components. Thats what keeps URC in business selling 1k-2k remote systems for customers like myself.
I'm new to AirPlay and have run into something I can't figure out. I turned on the passcode option, and the description mentions being prompted to enter a code when the device connects to the AppleTV for the first time. I'm getting that prompt repeatedly though. If I turn of the code prompt completely, will it just work for devices connected to the same WiFi network...?
Can I turn off the Apple TV or just put it to sleep? When I put it to sleep it turns off the tv before I can reset it for my cable setting.
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Mine wouldn't activate with the home wifi. I had to use my phone's hotspot to get it going, but it works fine on the home wifi after that. Same with the previous Apple TV. Weird.
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It took four tries for me to get it to accept my home wifi. After the third time, I reset the router, and fourth time it connected. My signal is strong where the Apple TV sets, so that was not the issue.
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I have multiple Apple TVs and it seems I have to manually choose the 70+ apps on each Apple TV... Then I have to activate a lot of these apps on each Apple TV. Then to add insult to injury one of the Apple TVs became defective and I had to replace that Apple TV and re-download the 70 apps again and activate a lot of them again. Why is there not a restore option like on the iPhone and iPad? After all it knows it's me between setting it up with my iPhone and my Apple ID and pw...
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I hear you brother. I have 4 myself & individually setting up each one is a pain in the backside
Can somebody please help me !! I was wondering if I can use my iPhone 6s Plus to Air Play to my Apple TV 4 generation with no wifi at all ? I want to no if I can use my phone data to watch stuff like Netflix and Hulu without wifi. I just moved and it will be about a month before they can hook my internet up. Anybody know about this ?
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Personally I would just turn on personal hotspot on your phone & let the apple tv use your phone for internet service. Your phone in essence becomes a router that your ATV hooks
up to.
Why can't I access my playlist for YouTube on Appletv 4th generation
There is a USB port on my AppleTV. The use of this USB is not mentioned anywhere in the Users Guide. Can anyone tell me what it can be used for? It would be wonderful, for example, if a thumb drive full of pictures could be attached, so the pictures can be displayed directly from there on your TV. But that does not seem to work ...... So again, what can the USB Port be used for?
Thans,
Tahunga
Need clearer directions than in the little book that came with the remote.
How do you go back directly to menu screen w/out having to go through a lot of steps.
How do you get rid of words on screen that we did not put on?
is there a set of directions on computer that are more explanitory than in the little book that came with the set?
Have many questions that are not are not written in the book.
is there a phone number to call for help?
I would love to return to a local content movie I was watching, or a TV series, instead of having to navigate a list each time.
I understand, and appreciate, that Apple has privacy as a priority, but accessing local content needs to be easier.
for some reason the screen shots of home screen here look better then the actual larger wider portion for cover art...
Hope Apple actually have shrunk the height,, last time I tested Apple TV 4, my images took up half the screen... looks ugly. so i return to Apple TV 3.
For something so small can do so much a Foxtel box can do that's not even comparable is a big plus.