Apple tvOS

Discussions General
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I first started using Trakt a long time ago (maybe 10 years), but in recent years have actively used it very little. This was primarily because it didn’t fit my workflow well - Apple TV centric.

It linked with Infuse, for my own content, but when WatchAid stopped being supported (and only ever tracked movies), I moved to JustWatch for tracking my streaming activity. The Apple TV JustWatch was always buggy though, and I finally gave up on that when Justwatch support notified me (in response to bugs that I’d been chasing a fix for, for nearly a year) that they were no longer developing / supporting Justwatch TV apps!

I thought the answer might be Plex when they added streaming service tracking, but it’s also really buggy, cumbersome and not fully integrated (understandably maybe, as this is not Plex’s primary purpose).

I was therefore for delighted when I discovered that a Trakt tvOS app had been launched. I’ve only been using it for a week, and it’s really promising. Now I realise that it’s the first release, and only been out for 2 months, but have some observations (maybe misunderstandings - and a lot is related to customisation/configuration in the tvOS app, which doesn’t seem to exist) :

  • Lists do not appear to allow a sort order choice. I thought it might use the default order selected when creating the list, but whatever you choose as default, it never changes the order (I think it’s always using Rank)
  • I don’t like having my Movies and Series mixed up in one list, so rather than using Watchlist, I’ve created custom lists e.g. Movies and Series. Doing this results in a number of needs - I’d like to choose to ‘hide’ the Watchlist list in the displayed lists (as it’s always empty for me); I’d like to be able to add a movie/series to my chosen list when browsing (ie not only have add to Watchlist as an option)
  • I’d like an option to have Favourites not displayed
  • I’d like to have ‘some’ choice over what options ate shown on the tvOS top tab bar (the same as you can choose the 6 to be displayed on the iPad iOS app tab bar)
  • In general I’d like to see more of the configuration options available in the iOS app also available with the tvOS app (I’d assumed that the tvOS app might inherit some configuration from the iOS app, but it doesn’t seem to)
  • On the tvOS app for Up Next, Schedule, etc the episode name is the more prominent display, and the series name a subtext? This is same as the Webapp, but the opposite to the iOS app. I’d prefer the Series name to be the more prominent text (or configurable)
  • When you have completed viewing something, I’d like it to automatically tag it was watched (or pop up a choice), as JustWatch does.
  • For lists it would be nice to have an option not have movie / series shown if either it’s not available on one of your selected streaming services or if a date’s not yet available e.g. waiting for new season to have dates (this just removes clutter if you track a lot of items in a list)

Sorry for the long post, and I hope it’s helpful. The tvOS app is amazing - I’m just hoping for a little more flexibility in future releases. :slight_smile:

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I’ve had an initial review of all the points you’ve listed and have some comments but overall everything seems reasonable for the most part and probably becomes more of a usefulness/priority comparison as to whether we can or will make changes to address them all.

  • For list sorting, that’s likely something we will add as it should be relatively easy and useful.
  • Your preference to not use the watchlist is a bit of a niche use case and we may be able to add a way to hide it, but I don’t foresee this being priority.
  • I think the same above applies to favorites.
  • The top bar becoming dynamic is also something that seems cool but not quite sure if that’s something we’d do just yet, would need more discussion and perhaps more specific use cases.
  • I’m curious what other configurations you’re referring to from iOS.
  • The position of the show vs episode name should likely be at the very least consistent across platforms, I agree - so this may change in the near future.
  • Having some form of auto watching or pop up choice seems useful but hard to say if it’s a priority to try get that working as expected without it becoming annoying (I’d almost certainly have a opt out or in for this regardless).
  • List filtering, as with sorting, is for sure something we’re working on in the near future.
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I appreciate the reply, and completely understand that every enhancement or change needs to be prioritised (which inevitably means some requests may never make it to the front of the development list). Some comments on your reply, if I may.

To be honest it’s not so much a preference to not use the watchlist, but rather that it’s too cumbersome for my use case. Right now I have 104 movies in my ‘scheduled to watch’ list and 32 series I’m tracking. When I sit down to watch something I typically know I want to watch a movie or start a series. Having all of those mixed in a single Watchlist adds (for me) unnecessary clutter.

I’m not alone in this opinion, but we may still be a small minority :wink: https://forums.trakt.tv/t/trakt-for-apple-tvos-watchlist-in-alphabetical-order-shows-movies-seperated/35743

Adding sorting and filtering to the Watchlists will help - although I’d still like to see separate Movie and Series watchlists plus filtering/sorting.

As for iOS options, I’m referring to things like ‘hide up next’, ‘hide recently watched’, etc. With options like these you can reduce display clutter which, IMO, is more important on a TV app than a tablet or PC display.

As I said, I understand that all input has to be prioritised, and hope you welcome the feedback. I’ve also noticed some odd operational issues, but will post those elsewhere (may be bugs, may be integration issues outside of your control).