Apple TV Universal Search Expands, Adds AMC And The Hallmark Channel To The Mix

Apple has just increased the number of apps which can tie into the Apple TV Siri universal search functionality by two, with support for both the AMC and The Hallmark Channel now included for users in the United States.

Fans of the popular TV shows, such as Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead, are now able to search for episodes of the shows via universal search and Siri functionality present on the fourth-generation Apple TV set-top box.

Apple TV 4 two

The Apple TV has really taken off with the advent of the Apple TV 4, especially with the evolution of the tvOS platform and the tvOS App Store.

For those unfamiliar with the feature, universal search allows users of Apple TVs to search for media using either Siri or universal search text input. The benefit here is that searching for a movie, for example, need not be a case of launching apps individually and then searching until the content is found. Instead, searching in one area will allow tvOS to search across multiple apps in an attempt to find what is required.

When the fourth-generation Apple TV was launched – the only Apple TV hardware to support universal search – the feature was limited to only a handful of apps. This number however is now steadily growing since this past year, with AMC and The Hallmark Channel joining the list of supported Apple TV apps.

walking-dead-apple-tv

Users in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the U.K. are all able to take advantage of a huge array of apps with universal search support. In some countries though, like France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, only iTunes and Netflix are among supported apps for universal search.

Those countries should be thankful though, because some countries don’t even have that with iTunes being the only platform being supported by the set-top-box for searching movies via the so called universal search functionality. For a complete list of apps that support Siri and universal search function in your country, head over to Apple support page here.

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