Apple TV

The Apple TV integration allows you to control an Apple TV (any generation).

There is currently support for the following entities within the Apple TV device:

• Media Player
• Remote

Configuration

To add the Apple TV integration to your Home Assistant instance, use this My button:

Apple TV can be auto-discovered by Home Assistant. If an instance was found, it will be shown as Discovered. You can then set it up right away.

Media player

The Apple TV media player platform will create a Media Player entity for each Apple TV discovered on your network. This entity will display the active app and playback controls.

Launching apps

You can launch apps using the media_player.select_source service, or using the “Apps” folder in the media browser.

Using the media_player.play_media service, you can also use Deep Links to launch specific content in applications.

Examples of some Deep Links for popular applications:

The simplest way to find useful Deep Links is to use the “Share” feature in iOS or macOS versions of the App. Share sheets will often have a “Copy” or “Copy link” feature. For apps that have a web-accessible version, links copied from the browser usually work too. Such links may not work if a developer maintains separate iOS and tvOS apps. More methods of discovering links supported by apps can be found in the pyatv documentation.

Examples:

# Open the Netflix app at a specific title
service: media_player.play_media
data:
  media_content_type: url
  media_content_id: https://www.netflix.com/title/80234304
target:
  entity_id: media_player.living_room_apple_tv

# Open a specific YouTube video:
service: media_player.play_media
data:
  media_content_type: url
  media_content_id: youtube://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
target:
  entity_id: media_player.living_room_apple_tv

Remote

The Apple TV remote platform will automatically create a Remote entity for each Apple TV configured on your Home Assistant instance. These entities allow you to turn the device on/off and to send control commands.

The following commands are currently available:

• wakeup
• suspend
• home
• home_hold
• top_menu
• menu
• select
• play
• pause
• up
• down
• left
• right
• volume_up
• volume_down
• previous
• next
• skip_backward
• skip_forward

NOTE: Not all commands are supported by all Apple TV versions.

Service send_command

Examples

Create a script to invoke the Netflix application based on the application icon being in a fixed place on the home screen:

lounge_appletv_netflix:
  alias: "Select Netflix"
  sequence:
    - service: remote.send_command
      target:
        entity_id: remote.lounge_appletv
      data:
        delay_secs: 1.5
        command:
          - top_menu
          - home
          - right
          - select

Script using the home_hold command to send your Apple TV to sleep and turn off the Media Player:

apple_tv_sleep:
  alias: "Make the Apple TV sleep"
  sequence:
    - service: remote.send_command
      target:
        entity_id: remote.lounge_appletv
      data:
        delay_secs: 1
        command:
          - home_hold
          - select
    - service: media_player.turn_off
      target:
        entity_id: media_player.lounge_appletv

Send 3 left commands with delay between each:

service: remote.send_command
target:
  entity_id: remote.apple_tv
data:
  num_repeats: 3
  delay_secs: 2.5
  command:
    - left

FAQ

My Apple TV does not turn on/off when I press on/off in the frontend

That is correct; it only toggles the power state in Home Assistant. See the example above to use the home_hold command. This can be used on Apple TVs running tvOS 14.0 or later.

Is it possible to see if a device is on without interacting with it

No

When adding a new device, a PIN code is requested, but none is shown on the screen

This can happen when pairing the AirPlay protocol in case the access settings are wrong. On your Apple TV, navigate to Settings, find the AirPlay menu and make sure that the access setting is set to “Everyone on the same network” and try again.

The buttons (play, pause, etc.) do not work

The tvOS apps themselves decide what commands they support and when they support them. Likely, the app you are using does not support the action you are trying to perform. Before writing an issue about this, verify if the same action is possible with the Remote app in iOS. If that is the case, please write a bug in pyatv and include logs (see Debugging below).

Setting volume doesn’t work on my Apple TV

Volume control functionality depends on how the Apple TV is set up. All volume controls should work if the Apple TV is connected to a HomePod or HomePod stereo pair. If the Apple TV is connected to TV speakers and with volume control over HDMI CEC (Settings -> Remotes and Devices -> Volume Control) only volume up/down controls will work. If volume control is over IR then volume cannot be controlled remotely through the Apple TV, but you can integrate your TV or soundbar directly.

I’m trying to play a stream via AirPlay, but it doesn’t work

The Apple TV is quite picky when it comes to which formats it plays. The best bet is MP4. If it doesn’t work, it’s likely because of the media format.

Debugging

If you have any problems and intend to write an issue, make sure you have the relevant logs included. For this integration, you can enable them like this:

logger:
  logs:
    pyatv: debug
    homeassistant.components.apple_tv: debug

By providing logs directly when creating the issue, you will likely get help much faster.