Version: 2023.2
Language : English
tvOS
tvOS Player Settings

Requirements and compatibility

Although the Apple TV platform (tvOS) is similar to the iOS platform, there are some differences between the two. Before developing your application for tvOS, review the requirements, compatibility notes, and known limitations.

Requirements

To develop for tvOS, you need the following:

  • Xcode 7.1 or later.

Compatibility

It’s best practice to create a separate branch or copy of your application and port that to Apple TV. tvOS only supports a subset of the iOS framework. This means that plug-insA set of code created outside of Unity that creates functionality in Unity. There are two kinds of plug-ins you can use in Unity: Managed plug-ins (managed .NET assemblies created with tools like Visual Studio) and Native plug-ins (platform-specific native code libraries). More info
See in Glossary
that are compatible with iOS might not be compatible with tvOS.

If your app uses more than 4 GB on disk, break it into smaller parts and use On Demand Resources.

Note: Bitcode is included with tvOS builds, which adds around 130 MB to your executables. App Store servers strip this code, so it doesn’t affect your distribution size. To estimate Bitcode size, analyze the LLVM sections in your executable from the command line with otool -1.

Implementing support for On Demand Resources

tvOS limits how much disk space your application can reserve. The main application installation bundle size can’t be larger than 4 GB. The limits for additional downloadable content are up to 2GB for in-use assets, and up to 20GB of total downloadable content. Apple recommends On Demand Resources (ODR) for tvOS downloadable content, which is the best disk space management for tvOS. Unity supports ODROn-demand resources (ODR) is a feature available for the iOS and tvOS platforms, from version 9.0 of iOS and tvOS onwards. It allows you to reduce the size of your application by separating the core assets (those that are needed from application startup) from assets which may be optional, or which appear in later levels of your game. More info
See in Glossary
via Asset Bundles. For more information about ODR implementation, see the Unity blog Mastering on-demand resources for Apple platforms.

Known limitations

  • The on-screen keyboard is limited to single line entries.
  • tvOS Simulator doesn’t emulate the Apple TV Remote as an app controller, which means apps can’t access its input.
tvOS
tvOS Player Settings