Just to clarify. The Apple TV (tvOS) interface gives extra functionality to apps on the top row of the launcher. (you have full control over ordering the apps). This functionality allows the apps to show whatever preview content they want per the SDK. Some show continue watching, and then suggestions, others show nothing. But you are in charge of what apps are on the top row.

Also, you can change the setting fore the TV.app so the large banner on the home screen only shows television shows and movies you have added to "Up Next". Go to "Settings" > "Apps" > "TV" and change the "Top Shelf" setting to "Up Next" instead of "What To Watch".

This tip is very much appreciated, thank you

Thanks. I didn’t know why I was somehow immune to the Apple TV+ advertising and why I just saw Spotify recommendations.

It does however have a lot of space dedicated to advertising shows in paid apps that you may not own inside of the AppleTV app itself which you use to track your own owned and subscribed content.

The first thing I did when I got my ATV4K was change the TV button to go to the home screen instead of the TV app and have not used the app for anything. A far cry from ads being on the home screen itself.

That is certainly better than the Shield, which is giving me recommendations for stuff I don't subscribe to.

As far as I understand though, is that it will show recommendations provided by installed apps. I do have Prime, and I still don't really want recommendations without explicitly asking for it.

FWIW, I own both a Shield Pro and an Apple TV. I use my Apple TV most of the time. I find it a much nicer interface. The only time I use the Shield is with Plex for watching Blu-rays that I've ripped because it supports pass-through of Dolby TrueHD and the Apple TV does not.

The appleTV app might do that, but I use the AppleTV and just avoid the appleTV app and it doesn't interfere with anything. If I had an ad appear one day I'd throw the whole thing away.

If I recall you can disable this on a per-app basis.

This is different from the recommendation "channels" that each app can provide. You can choose whether or not each one shows up on the home screen, re-order them, and so on.

This is a giant banner at the top of the home page that shows ads from random streaming services that you may or may not subscribe to or have installed.

As an iOS user, there's a couple weird ones: Apple prohibits apps from putting ads in notifications, but sends a notification ad for every new Apple TV+ show. "Rules for thee, but not for me"

For those of you not on iOS, here's what one of those notification spams from Apple looks like:

https://twitter.com/Reaperducer/status/1393380938642563072

See also:

Ads for Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and Apple's fitness thing at the top of the Settings app.

https://twitter.com/Reaperducer/status/1390696646854397955

Fake notification alerts in the App Store to get you to tap on the Apple Arcade button to show you a subscription ad.

Spam from Apple that I can't seem to stop receiving, even though I'm unsubscribed from every Apple list. I've gone as far as to contact AppleCare about it. I spent an hour on the phone with someone at AppleCare who couldn't explain why I keep getting Apple Arcade spam in my e-mail.

https://twitter.com/Reaperducer/status/1394843930932523015

!$#!#@

just when i'm just about ready to pull the trigger and switch to iOS you tell me this..

save us pinephone

Apple no longer prohibits ads in notifications as of March last year

https://9to5mac.com/2020/03/04/apple-now-allows-push-notific...

Good way to get your notification privileges revoked though. I wish Apple would add granular notification categories within apps so that you could approve particular types of notifications while denying others. A quick google says Android 8 did this in 2017.

Apple's policy on this is to require in-app configuration to opt out of marketing messages, rather than a way to configure it through the OS.

Essentially, Apple blocked it until they needed it to promote their services in more channels.

Apple is adding something like what you want in iOS 15. https://openback.com/blog/wwdc-2021-ios-15-push-notification...

Sort of like what I want, but relies of developers to decide what is passive/active/time-sensitive/critical, and instead of being able to fix it the only recourse is to say "no notifications."

I do see what Apple is going for, in that these predefined categories let you automate notification handling with Focus modes, but I have a feeling a lot of apps will have an inflated opinion of how important "new episodes of ____ are available" is to me.

Many apps send marketing notifications anyway. And there seems to be no way to report it.

Not sure what you mean by "send marketing notifications anyway," since they are allowed to do that now.

Are you saying they do it after you opt-out of the marketing notifications in-app?

Yes.

Those are so annoying. Thankfully you can turn the notifications off.

To be honest, Apple never enforces that rule on third parties anyway.

The good ol' "do as I say & not as I do" routine.

Youtube app update and now has a huge banner ad at the top when you start it up. Very annoying!

This is Apple's fault how?

Pushing people to use "apps" instead of the web where poor behavior just makes your own product crappier.

Websites are unregulated. iOS apps have to abide by Apple's terms. This is exactly why developers are mad about any number of things: paying Apple's commission, but also complying with their privacy dictates.

Apparently Apple's terms aren't that great for some users.

I've noticed, for example, that they seem to be particularly upsetting to Android users.

How so?

As a really simple example, the App Store does not have a torrent remote app while the Play Store and F-Droid have them.

If you want a computer connected to your TV instead of a streaming box, you know where to find it.

That's right. I couldn't stream very well from my RPi3, but I can easily play local 1080p videos. We've actually got it hooked up to an old tube TV, so I get 480p when I can.

This is what I do. Many streaming services artificially degrade the quality and sometimes refuse to work at all when I do this.

My HP mini is to crappy to play youtube videos on its tiny poor resolution screen even playing them on the lowest resolution (which shouldn't even count) but if I download the videos and attach a huge monitor to it VLC just cruises though GB+ sized HD video files without dropping a frame. Transmission is good enough. Spend another 7 euro on a TB storage device[0] - you deserve it! More movies to watch than your health can take.

The digital prison builders are less offensive than their supporters. Remember to point and laugh when they complaint about their self-funded captivity. Its an important public service to point and laugh as they are paving the way for our imprisonment. We clearly didn't laugh hard enough in the past.

edit:

[0] - for the pun ill add a promotional link: https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/311843/bestmedia-platinum-my...

I'm still laughing.

Not that it's Apple's fault that YouTube has ads. But Apple don't seem to allow any alternative YouTube clients on the store.

Hm. My immediate counter to your point was “that is because YouTube doesn’t allow anyone to use their api,” but now that I think about it I’m not so sure.

Is it Apple keeping non-Google-produced YouTube clients off the App Store, or is it Apple? Maybe both?

Apple have policy that apps cannot be on the store that use a unauthorized API’s

My “Up Next”, which is Apple’s integration to show shows you’ve been watching when the Apple TV app is selected in the top bar, is polluted constantly with MLB games that I’ve not figured out how to disable. Sometimes I have to skip 3 or 4 games in the bar to find a show I watched yesterday.

And I never watch MLB games nor do I have the app installed (clicking the games brings me to install the MLB app).

Settings -> Apps -> TV, turn off the sports recommendations in there. Those are off by default, so you must have turned them on at some point.

Yeah, I’ve done that plus one other remotely related setting. Doesn’t help.

E.g. “Show sports scores” is off, “Games in Up Next” is off, and “Exciting Games” is off.

FWIW, I have all those things on and have never seen anything sports-related. I have changed the settings for the TV app to only show what's in "Up Next" instead of "What to Watch", though. Maybe that's the difference?

Yeah, I’ve had that set to show “Up Next” for a while. I use it mainly as quick access to series I’m watching. Which is why having MLB games show up in the middle of them is frustrating.

Is the MLB app installed? Is it in the top row?

Nope, not sure it’s ever been installed (not 100% sure, but it’s definitely not installed now). Like I said, clicking any of the MLB games in the bar will ask me to install the app.

I moved top row apps that show promos to the right end. This way I'm not exposed to promos unless I'm on those apps (instead of seeing the promos on my way to another app).