The Verge reports that users are complaining both the Disney Plus and HBO Max Apple TV apps aren’t properly supporting the excellent new Siri Remote. Reddit reports that Disney Plus has yet to be updated to make use of the remote’s helpful scroll wheel scrubbing feature, which works on rival Netflix and Apple TV Plus apps. The HBO Max app has more issues, Screen Times reports, and lacks support for several of the remote’s features and voice commands.
A spokesperson for Disney Plus confirmed to The Verge that the feature — one of the best on the redesigned Siri Remote — isn’t supported on its service. It’s not a service issue, though, but instead related to custom video players.
Some streaming apps available on Apple TV use their own players, while others use the tvOS media player. The jogging gesture works with streaming apps that use Apple’s native media player, but it is not yet supported for third-party developers that use a custom media player, and that includes Disney’s streaming titan.
What that means is that beyond just Disney Plus, the scrubbing tool may not work for any video app that uses its own media player. It’s not clear when exactly Apple will make the feature available to these app developers. But the Disney spokesperson told The Verge that Disney Plus does plan to develop the tool for its own service once it does eventually become available.
The issue had been the topic of discussion in a Reddit thread from user batsforbreakfast21, who noted experiencing issues on Disney Plus but not other services like Netflix and Apple TV Plus. Other users expressed having issues with HBO Max and Peacock as well.
It just goes to show that a platform holder can build a powerful combination of hardware and software in support of third-party apps and services, but it doesn’t mean anything unless those same apps and services actually bother to add support.
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