Apple TV is another one of Apple’s great and innovative products. And like all Apple products, the Apple TV also get regular updates. The latest update for Apple TV was recently sent out, just last week. The update was the 7.0 update for third generation Apple TVs only. However, the highly anticipated update fell flat with many Apple TV users. With the new update, the new features that Apple TV users got were new icons, a new Beats Music Channel, and a Family Sharing feature. Even though the new icons were esthetically pleasing, they still didn’t add anything new to the Apple TV in terms of usability. Many users stated that the new update did nothing to improve the Apple TV experience. So, below are 5 suggestions to Apple to improve its Apple update and make the next update a better one.

Safari plug-in for queueing videos

Many people watch YouTube videos on their computer, iPhones, or iPad by simply typing in the web address in their browser and watching videos. However, the experience of watching YouTube videos through the Apple TV is not always so streamlined or a pleasant experience. Surfing through the YouTube channel with the remote has been described as “clunky”, and trying to send a video from your iPhone or iPad using AirPlay can be a long wait and can only be done one video at a time. One suggestion for the Apple TV was to be able to surf around with Safari and right-click videos around the web to add them to a “watch later” list that’s synced through iCloud to my Apple TV.” It’s a much easier and streamlined process to be able to watch videos online or on your phone instead of through Apple TV. However, the experience of watching online videos would be much better through the television.

Universal Search

Instead of sifting through each channel and their myriad of choices, Apple TV users should be able to search for content across all channels at one time, in order to find what they are looking for. This is a lot to ask, but when other streaming products like Roku and Kindle Fire are making strides to provide this feature, it’s time for Apple to get a leg up on them.

Siri

We are all familiar with the voice activated program on Apple iPhones called Siri, Having Siri be available on Apple TV would be a great feature in the next update. (Kindle TV has a microphone already built into the remote.) The ideal scenario would be that someone speaks directly into their Apple TV remote saying, “I’d like to watch Whoppi Goldberb films on my Apple TV”, and these films will come right up.

One Login

There are a number of channels available on Apple TV. Some of these channels are paid for by the user. However, for each pay TV channel, the Apple TV user is required to log in in for each and every time they want to view the channel. This is because those channels don’t all support the same provider.  Each time you want to watch the channel, you have to search around for the login screen and login every time you want to watch a new channel. The best way to solve this problem is to create only one place for the user to log in just one time. Also, a notification of when there’s an update through the Apple TV, perhaps through email once the user logs in, would work as well. This streamlined approach makes it much easier to use.

Open SDK and a channel store

Apple TV competitors like Fire TV and Roku allow for their users to leisurely look through the Channel Store and choose whatever channel they want. Apple TV places channels on the lineup without you choosing them, so they just sit on your user page even if you don’t want that particular channel. Apple should create a better way for their users to pick the channels they want to watch or sign up for, and reject the channels they do not want. It’s recommended that Apple should, “greatly expand the channel offerings through an open SDK without users becoming overwhelmed by screen after screen of icons.”

There are sure to be more suggestions that Apple TV users have for the company before the next update. Can you think of a few?