YouTube will finally stream videos in 4K on the Apple TV 4K with tvOS 14

Apple TV 4K with TV app Source: iMore

What you need to know

YouTube will begin to stream in 4K on Apple TV 4K in tvOS 14.
Apple made the announcement in its feature list for tvOS 14.
Up until now, YouTube streaming has been limited to 1080p.

Streaming YouTube in 4K has been missing on the Apple TV 4K since its launch, but it looks like the wait will soon be over. Buried in the feature list for tvOS 14, Apple has announced that it is bringing 4K streaming to the YouTube app for the Apple TV 4K.

"Watch the latest YouTube videos in their full 4K glory. Your favorite music, slo-mo, outdoor, and vlog footage never looked better."

Source: Apple

4K streaming for the YouTube app, as explained by The Verge, has been limited to 1080p because Apple has refused to support the VP9 codec, which YouTube uses for its entire library. The outlet has reached out to Apple and Google to find out if Apple has begun to support the codec or if YouTube has made a change on their end to support the Apple TV 4K.

Currently, users are also unable to stream YouTube in 4K through Safari because of the same issue, but Apple has not mentioned whether or not the new version of Safari in macOS Big Sur will support 4K streaming for YouTube.