What you need to know
- Apple Watches can now authorize purchases on the Apple TV.
- Users previously had to resort to using their iPhone to authorize purchases.
- The feature is incredibly convenient as opposed to typing out a password on the Apple TV.
The Apple Watch and Apple TV are playing together nicely with purchases now.
If you've had to make a purchase on your Apple TV or Apple TV 4K lately, you've probably gotten used to using your iPhone to do so. While you used to have manually type out or use Siri to enter your password when renting a movie or buying an app, Apple released an update a while ago to tvOS and iOS that allowed you to authorize a purchase using your iPhone - removing the need to handle it directly on the Apple TV.
It was an incredibly useful feature but the only problem was that, in order to use this convenient feature, you needed to reach for your iPhone. It seems that Apple thought this could be even easier because it has brought the same capability to the Apple Watch.
As spotted by 9to5Mac, with watchOS 8.5 and tvOS 15.4, users can now authorize purchases on the Apple TV with their Apple Watch.
Apple has also included a change that will prove valuable to its set-top box users with a seamless double-click now the default to authorize Apple TV purchases on Apple Watch (previously and still works via iPhone/iPad too).The Apple Watch or iPhone authorization works for one-time purchases and subscriptions inside of the Movies app/iTunes Store, Apple TV+ app, as well as for third-party apps on tvOS.
This latest update is just another reason to pick up the new Apple Watch Series 7 with its larger and more durable display as well as its faster charging.
Bottom line: I love the Apple Watch Series 7, and its small upgrades make for a big difference on most previous models.
