Apple TV+ May Be Coming to Android
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While frost may start forming in Hades before we see an iMessage app for Android, Apple may finally be looking to extend the reach of its video services to the rival smartphone platform.
A new job posting uncovered by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reveals that Apple is looking for an “Android Software Engineer” specifically for the Apple TV app. The position, which is based in San Diego, California, calls for a “proactive, hardworking and experienced senior android [sic] engineer to lead the development of fun new features, and to help build an application used by millions to watch and discover tv and sports.”
An Android version of the Apple TV app has been around for a few years, but it’s been exclusively for Chromecast streaming devices and smart TVs powered by the Android operating system. It’s always been a bit odd that Apple hasn’t extended the app to Android smartphones and tablets.
After all, unlike iMessage, which Apple provides at no charge to its hardware customers, the Apple TV is the gateway to its subscription and media services. Even iPhone users won’t have much use for the TV app unless they subscribe to Apple TV+ or purchase content from iTunes. It can help you find and access content on other streaming services like Prime and Max, but that’s essentially a secondary feature.
The absence of the Apple TV app is even more unusual when you consider that Apple Music came to Android only a few months after the service launched in 2015. Since then, it’s been surprisingly well-received by Android fans, even recently being hailed by Android Police phones editor Will Sattelberg as the least annoying streaming music service for Android users.
Apple’s TV app fits into the same space as Apple Music, and it’s hard to see a downside to making it available on Android smartphones and tablets. Surely, the resources it would take for Apple to develop a solid Android version of Apple TV would be more than justified by the additional subscriptions that would come from its wider availability.
Since Apple’s TV app is readily available nearly everywhere else, from game consoles and smart TVs to Windows PCs, the most likely explanation for its absence on Android phones is that Apple simply hasn’t gotten around to it.
As a company, Apple tends to run lean and mean and carefully focuses its resources. Smartphone users also tend to listen to music much more than they watch videos — especially long-form content like movies and TV shows — so it’s easier to understand how Apple Music for Android was a much bigger priority.
Those priorities have been shifting more recently. Although it’s long been possible to watch in a browser, Apple TV+ only came to Windows as a native app earlier this year as the final step in showing iTunes the door — four years after macOS Catalina killed it on the Mac.
That was a long-overdue change that likely had more to do with iTunes than Apple TV, but it’s still not hard to see how Apple’s software engineering teams may be pursuing a native Android app as the next step to extend Apple’s services to more platforms.
