News

tvOS 17 Brings Support for VPN Apps to Apple TV

Apple on Monday announced tvOS 17 is coming to the Apple TV later this year, bringing a number of new features to the Apple TV, which includes support for VPN apps.

It is currently unknown whether Apple will be allowing all users to install and use VPN apps from such providers as NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and numerous other VPN providers. It is possible that Apple may restrict the usage of VPNs to enterprise and education users, as the mention of VPNs in the press release reads as follows:

Third-party VPN support, which enables developers to create VPN apps for Apple TV. This can benefit enterprise and education users wanting to access content on their private networks, allowing Apple TV to be a great office and conference room solution in even more places.

If Apple allows standard users to install and use a VPN, it could open up access for Apple TV viewers to access geo-fenced content from any location. For example, it could allow users in the U.K. to view Netflix content from the U.S. and other countries.

tvOS 17 is currently available in beta format only to users with an Apple developer account. It should become available to all users with an Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD models released in 2015 and later this year. VPNs should begin to appear in the tvOS App Store sometime soon after.

(Via MacRumors)

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.