Skip to main content

tvOS 26 adds the Apple TV screen saver feature I’ve always wanted

tvOS 26 launched earlier this week with a variety of new features for Apple TV 4K users, and one of the highlights for me is a screen saver feature that I’ve always wanted.

tvOS 26 lets you enable or disable individual aerial screen savers

If you own an Apple TV 4K, you know that screen savers are one of the device’s best features.

That may sound silly, but for a product that mainly exists to stream video content, it’s the niceties like Apple’s aerial screen savers that set it apart.

In tvOS 26, Apple has added beautiful new aerial screen savers that were captured across India.

But what excites me most about screen savers in tvOS 26 is a separate upgrade entirely.

Now, you can manually choose which aerial screen savers do and don’t appear.

By navigating to the Screen Saver menu inside Settings, you can open Aerials to find the option: ‘Choose Aerials.’

From here, the four types of aerials are listed:

  • Cityscape
  • Earth
  • Landscape
  • Underwater

With tvOS 26, you can enable and disable whichever screen savers you like or don’t like from each category.

Essentially, this lets you create a custom Apple TV 4K ‘playlist’ of screen savers that will be cycled through moving forward.

Ever since the Apple TV and tvOS first launched aerial screen savers, there have been some that I loved and others I wasn’t a big fan of. For example, some of the Underwater options can be a little terrifying, while others are gorgeous.

Previously, while you could disable entire categories of aerials, there was never a similar option for individual screen savers.

But now that tvOS 26 is here, you can customize screen savers to suit your exact preferences.

Have you used the new screen saver customization option in tvOS 26? Let us know in the comments.

Best Apple TV 4K accessories

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

Author

Avatar for Ryan Christoffel Ryan Christoffel

Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.