It’s Time for a New Remote

The current Apple TV 4K box and Siri Remote

We’ve seen rumors that a new Apple TV box is imminent, and given that it’s been nearly 3 years since the Apple TV 4K was released, I think we’re overdue for an update.

People often ask if a new box is really needed, as this 2017 device still has a very powerful processor compared to most of its competitors (the A10X is still very capable), plus, this device already supports 4K, HDR, Atmos, Bluetooth 5.0, and most other modern technologies in the industry. But there is still room for improvement — namely, with HDMI 2.1, AV1 hardware support, WiFi 6, an updated SoC, and a few other items. But far more important than any of that is a new remote.

The current Apple TV Siri Remote is 5 years old. It’s from 2015, with one minor revision added in 2017 (the white ring to help with physical orientation by reducing symmetry). From the day the Siri Remote was released, it has been controversial to put it mildly. There are some things to love (namely, the simplicity and minimalism), but there’s also a lot to hate. It’s time for something new.

From the day the Siri Remote was released, it has been controversial to put it mildly. There are some things to love (namely, the simplicity and minimalism), but there’s also a lot to hate. It’s time for something new.

The current Apple TV Siri Remote design is from 2015. It’s from that 2012 — 2016 era at Apple, which I felt was a design weak point for the company. The 2013 Mac Pro. iOS 7. The original watchOS UI. The Butterfly Keyboard. The iPhone 6 hardware design. The iPad’s period of stagnation. And so on. That was an era at Apple in which too much emphasis was placed on aesthetics, at the expense of usability.

Since then, things have gotten a whole lot better. The new Mac Pro. The iOS 7 aesthetic was scaled back considerably with iOS 10. WatchOS was rethought in significant ways with watchOS 3. The Butterfly Keyboard is gone. The iPhone 6 design has been replaced. And of course, the iPad has made considerable advances in both hardware and software design.

It’s the Apple TV remote’s turn. It may be the last vestige of that era at Apple, so it deserves the upgrade treatment. It deserves the usability boost. It’s time to move away from the monolithic-art-museum-piece design from that post-Steve, just-Jony era — and to move towards a friendlier, more user-focused design language.

In that spirit, here are some suggestions on how it can be improved:

1. Ergonomics. The remote needs to be thicker and more ergonomic so that it’s more comfortable in hand as well as easier to pick up. Right now, it’s like picking up a stick of gum. And once you’re holding it, it’s too thin to be comfortable in hand. There’s also the couch cushion issue, where it’s so thin that it easily slides between your sofa cushions and gets lost. I’d like to see that change.
2. Shape. The shape should be less symmetrical. The white ring added in 2017 helped a bit, but I still find I sometimes pick it up reversed. I still sometimes find that it takes my brain half a second to determine the orientation. That should not be the case. It should be second nature.
3. Improved navigation. The trackpad experience was never quite up to Apple’s standards. Firstly, I’d like to see the tvOS UI move to a more iPadOS-like UI. MacOS has a free moving pointer while tvOS has the ‘Focus Engine’ that is stuck moving from icon to icon. Recently, iPadOS added pointer support which is sort of like a hybrid between those two extremes. Something along those lines could be better for tvOS as well. And I’m sure the trackpad hardware will need to improve to support this. The current trackpad isn’t ideal because I find I often overshoot what I’m aiming for. Because of the Focus Engine, you’re so heavily magnetized to each icon that the momentum needed to move away causes you to overshoot where you were intending to go. It’s never felt quite right and isn’t as precise as it could be. I think an improvement is needed in both hardware and software. The sensitivity should be adjusted, the Focus Engine should be revised, and perhaps even the physical trackpad should be made larger and more spacious for more pinpoint accuracy.
4. Forward/back buttons. The edge click to skip forward/back 10 seconds should be made into standardized buttons that are both easier to use, and more prevalent so that you don’t have as many third party apps ignoring them (*cough* YouTube *cough*).
5. Button rethinking. The Menu and TV buttons need a rethink. ‘Menu’ functions more as a back button, and one of the most used features — going home — doesn’t have a button, but rather, requires you to hold the Menu button. And then the TV button takes you to the TV app, which you can already get to via the home screen. That arrangement just doesn’t feel right. There are ways to tinker with this in the Settings, but that’s more of a Band-Aid solution. I think these two buttons need to be renamed and remapped.
6. Biometric identification. This one’s more of a long shot but I’d love to have a remote with biometric identification (ie. Touch ID) where you activate it and it automatically signs in to your account. And the account system needs to be improved, of course. A TV is a communal device, not a personal device like an iPhone is, so there needs to be better support for multiple profiles/accounts. I’d love to see that built into the remote hardware. And while they’re at it, add a beacon to the remote so that if you lose it, you can press a button on the TV box and it pings the remote.
7. New UI possibilities? The last thought I had is perhaps there’s something Apple can do with local positioning. Now that they have the U1 chip in iPhones (which has been barely used thus far but may have a very bright future ahead), I’ll bet there are all sorts of things Apple can do to enhance the tvOS interface via the U1 ultra-wideband (UWB) chip. Perhaps it could even replace the need for a trackpad. Perhaps the U1, combined with improved gyroscopes and accelerometers, could make the remote more akin to a next generation LG Magic Remote. I think I’d honestly prefer that to the trackpad. I don’t like how complex that LG remote is, but the actual pointer functionality is a joy to use. While I far prefer tvOS to LG’s current smart tv webOS, I actually find LG’s Wii-like pointing system to be more intuitive and just more fun than the swipes on Apple’s remote. It’s more Apple-y than Apple’s system is. Alas, the rest of the Magic Remote and webOS is nowhere near as well designed as Apple’s offering. If Apple could maintain its own simplicity while providing a pointer UI, I think that would be the best of all worlds. Perhaps they could even add a Taptic Engine for a more tactile feel when navigating the UI.

The Apple A10X is still a beast of a processor. It’s still very capable. It has a GPU that’s more than half as fast as the GPU in the incredibly powerful A12Z from the latest iPad Pro and it has a CPU that’s about 75% as fast. Those are impressive figures for a streaming TV box, even in 2020. The Apple TV could always use a boost to an A12Z or perhaps even an A13X, but even now, it’s still not really necessary. Unless Apple plans on realigning Apple Arcade to compete more heavily with consoles in the graphics department, there’s no real urgency to upgrade the processor. What there is an urgency to upgrade is the remote.

Design at Apple has gotten a whole lot better recently compared to that 2012–2016 era. The Apple TV remote seems to be the last remnant from that era. It’s time for a new remote.