This week when Apple announced their new Apple TV app, they promoted the idea that you could watch content inside of the app. Apple has now updated their website to say “discover” instead of “watch” content inside the app. Hulu has also confirmed that you will not be able to watch Hulu inside the app.
This was first spotted and confirmed by Chris Welch from the Verge who tweeted his findings yesterday.
Yesterday Apple rolled out a new beta of the new Apple TV App. This beta only allows you to discover shows and movies. When you want to watch them it still opens a different app just like the old Apple TV App.
For the end users, the difference may seem like a minor technicality. For most, the idea of finding the content in the Apple TV App and having it smoothly start playing in Hulu or Amazon Prime Video is no different than it playing inside the Apple TV App. This is what Roku does with their Featured Free section that puts free content in one spot, but launches it in the correct app.
It is very possible that the new Apple TV App will allow you to watch content in the app and help you discover content outside of the app. It is possible when the new Apple TV+ service launches it will play content in the new Apple TV App. What is becoming clear is not everything in the new Apple TV App will stream inside of the app.
This idea is supported by the wording of the Apple press release that says “The all-new Apple TV app brings together the different ways to discover and watch shows, movies, sports, news and more in one app across iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, smart TVs and streaming devices.”
The wording on the Apple press release does seem to conflict with how many understood the press event as seen in this Reddit thread. From talking to our readers, some seem to think you will be able to watch DIRECTV NOW, Hulu, PlayStation Vue and more directly inside the new Apple TV App.
This raises big questions about how the Apple TV App will work on Roku and the Fire TV. Will you be able to discover Hulu content on the Roku version of the app? Will Amazon content be available on the Fire TV version of the app? Or will the Apple TV app only play content from Apple TV+ for example, on Roku and the Fire TV?
For now, we will have to wait and see as Apple’s event this week has raised more questions than it answered.
Cord Cutters News has reached out to Apple for clarification.
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