tvOS 27 Beta 4 Release Notes

Overview

The tvOS 27 SDK provides support to develop tvOS apps for Apple TV devices running tvOS 27 beta 4. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 27, available from the Mac App Store. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 27, see Xcode 27 Release Notes.

Apple TV

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: When launching the Apple TV app, the sidebar focus highlight might briefly appear flat on the right side. (177389941)

AVKit Video Playback

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: When a video is muted or unmuted during playback, subtitles may not be automatically enabled or disabled as expected. The subtitles-on-mute logic has not yet been updated to account for the new system behavior. (177086166)

Background Assets

New Features

• You can reduce your app’s storage usage with localized asset packs. The system delivers the appropriately localized asset packs based on the user’s preferred languages. (163944365)

Foundation

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: +[NSURL URLWithString:] no longer double-encodes the % of valid percent-escape sequences when encoding other invalid characters. (161588649) (FB20439045)

Game Center

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: When you trigger the Access Point, its completion handler is never invoked. (172683368)

HomeKit

New Features

• When Apple Intelligence in the Home app is enabled, your HomeKit Secure Video recordings are processed on-device and through Private Cloud Compute for video descriptions and search. (178858470)

• Apple Intelligence for Home requires an iCloud+ subscription starting at 2TB. (181282161)

Metal

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: When you use a sampler to read from a texture with clamp-to-edge addressing mode, the result might be clamped to zero. (172520325)

• Fixed: On devices in the Apple 10 GPU family, using a sampler to read from a texture with clamp-to-edge addressing mode might produce results that are clamped to zero. (177318505)

Network Security

New Features

• Starting in 27.0 operating systems, select system processes now enforce stricter network security (TLS) requirements. These new requirements might cause connections to fail if the server does not meet them. The affected processes are those involved in MDM, DDM, Automated Device Enrollment, configuration profile installation, app installation, and software updates. Servers must support TLS 1.2 at minimum, using cipher suites and certificates that meet App Transport Security (ATS) requirements.

  For additional details on affected processes, requirements, and how to audit and diagnose failures in managed environments, please reference Prepare your network environment for stricter security requirements. For additional details on ATS and the new requirements, please reference Preventing Insecure Network Connections and NSRequiresNIAPTLSPackageVersion. (176055825)

On Demand Resources

Deprecations

• On Demand Resources and the NSBundleResourceRequest API are deprecated. Use Background Assets instead. (170066290)

RealityKit

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: ComputeGraphComponents stored in a Reality file do not render when loaded. (177674901)

• Fixed: When OpacityComponent is applied to an entity with opaque materials, RealityRenderer renders the opaque materials with transparency, revealing interior surfaces. Only the frontmost surface should appear with partial transparency. (177976245)

Known Issues

• Some MaterialX 1.39 nodes are not supported. (172875414)

ShaderGraph

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: The realitykit_hair_surfaceshader node does not support DiffuseLightProbeGroupComponent. Materials built with this node might not respond to diffuse light probe group lighting. (177976666)

Siri

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: Siri might not resolve some entity types when your app has provided only an EntityStringQuery for the entity type. (177464215)

StoreKit

New Features

• StoreKit now includes the Transaction.OwnershipType.assigned and Transaction.RevocationType.assignmentRevoked enum values to support volume purchases. Transaction query methods now additionally return transactions assigned to the Managed Apple Account. (156749517)

• New Product.ProductType APIs represent subscription Bundles and subscription Suites. New APIs in Product.SubscriptionInfo.BundledSubscription let you fetch merchandising data about subscriptions contained in a Bundle. Transaction and RenewalInfo contain new fields that provide information about purchases and customer status regarding Bundles and Suites. (160501742)

• partnerName and partnerId properties for Advanced Commerce API are available in Transaction.AdvancedCommerceInfo and RenewalInfo.AdvancedCommerceInfo. (167808780)

Known Issues

• Purchases of non-subscription In-App Purchases made using the SKTestSession.buyProduct() method might fail with an invalid product error. The billingPlanType(_:) PurchaseOption isn’t respected for subscription purchases. (181842500)

StoreKit Testing in Xcode

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: The unified app receipt is not updated after forcing a subscription expiration with SKTestSession. (102093015) (FB11767567)

• Fixed: The SKTestSession disableDialogs setting is not always respected for all system dialogs. (154390284) (FB18403150)

• Fixed: Subscription upgrades performed with the Xcode Transaction Manager are not reported in Transaction.updates. (160698598) (FB20269723)

• Fixed: The renewal behavior preference is not respected when using the purchaseDate(_:renewalBehavior:) purchase option to make purchases using SKTestSession. (162014134) (FB20537538)

• Fixed: Re-purchasing a previously refunded non-consumable fails with an already owned error when using StoreKit Testing in Xcode. (174560379) (FB22475017)

• Fixed: Using pricingTerms.commitmentInfo.price in StoreKit Testing in Xcode returns an incorrect price for monthly subscriptions with a 12-month commitment. (177942756)

• Fixed: Transactions for upgraded subscriptions are immediately marked as expired when using StoreKit Testing in Xcode. (178441109)

Swift Charts

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: When your project has a minimum deployment target lower than 27.0, using conditionals inside a Chart closure produces the warning “Conformance of _ConditionalContent<TrueContent, FalseContent> to ChartContent is only available in ‘’ 27.0 or newer,” and the app might crash at runtime when that content is loaded. (174168981)

SwiftUI

New Features

• AsyncImage now automatically caches downloaded images using HTTP caching protocols, allowing servers to control caching behavior via standard headers. You can customize caching for specific images using the new AsyncImage initializers that accept URLRequest with custom cachePolicy settings. Additionally, you can set a custom URLSession using the new View.asyncImageURLSession(_:) API to control how all child AsyncImage views perform data tasks. (78212597)

• A @State declared with an expression as its initial value used to evaluate the expression each time the view struct re-instantiates. In the case of @State private var model = Model(), this means Model.init() gets called many times throughout the view’s lifetime. Xcode 27 introduces a new @State implementation that avoids this repeated evaluation. This new behavior back-deploys to iOS 17 aligned OSes. The new @State is implemented with a Swift macro. It is largely source compatible with the property wrapper version, with a few exceptions.

  If you provide an initial value at @State declaration, and also try to assign a value to it in an initializer, the initializer value is discarded. This behavior has not changed because of the macro, but some such cases no longer compile:

   struct StickerPageView: View {
       @State private var page = StickerPage()
       let title: String
   
       init(title: String) {
           // `title` won't have any effect
           // this also won't compile with @State macro
           self.page = StickerPage(title: title)
           self.title = title
       }
   }

  When assigning initial value via an initializer, do not provide an initial value at the @State declaration.

   struct StickerPageView: View {
       @State private var page: StickerPage // no initial value expression
       let title: String
   
       init(title: String) {
           self.page = StickerPage(title: title) // works!
           self.title = title
       }
   }

  When all stored members of a struct are private, the compiler synthesizes a private init that can be used in an extension of the same type:

   struct StickerPageView: View {
       @State private var page: StickerPage
       private let title: String
       ...
   }
   
   extension StickerPageView {
       init(title: String, _ page: StickerPage) {
           self.init(page: page, title: title) // using the synthesized init
       }
   }

  The state macro disables this synthesized initializer. So the code above no longer compiles. To mitigate, assign value to members explicitly:

   extension StickerPageView {
       init(title: String, _ page: StickerPage) {
           self.title = title
           self.page = page
       }
   }

  In rare situations, the automatic inference of generic arguments of @State is less flexible with the macro implementation. Write the type with more specificity.

  Composing @State with other property wrappers or macros is not supported. (105893279)

• The TabsPickerStyle style is now available for pickers that represent tab-based navigation and content selection. This style is similar to the .segmented style, but VoiceOver reads it as “tabs,” and on macOS it has a distinct visual appearance that distinguishes it from pickers that represent value selection — for example, a text alignment picker in an inspector. (173211711)

• You can now use the TextInputBorderShape type to customize the border shape of text input controls like TextField with the textInputBorderShape(_:) view modifier. The .squareBorder and .roundedBorder text field styles are soft deprecated — use the new .bordered text field style instead. (173362083)

• In apps built with the 27.0 SDKs, a LabeledContent view used inside a Menu maps its value to the platform menu item’s subtitle. (175594929)

• The @Entry macro now warns of potential issues if you store default class instances or closures in the environment. The SwiftUI Specialist skill in Xcode provides guidance for resolving these issues. (175902616)

• You can now access concentricCornerRadii and concentricCornerRadii(in:) on GeometryProxy. These APIs return the corner radii that are concentric with the view’s container shape as a RectangleCornerRadii?. You can use these values to drive custom drawing or layout that responds to the container’s corners without rendering a ConcentricRectangle directly. (177185166)

• @ContentBuilder type checking performance is further improved for valid code compared to Beta 1. (177526032)

• The new data item or error object based alert and confirmationDialog modifiers can now be used by projects targeting iOS 15.0, macOS 12.0, tvOS 15.0, watchOS 8.0, and visionOS 1.0. (179388848)

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: When you apply both .fileExporter(_:...) and .fileMover(_:...) modifiers to a view, some dialogs might not present correctly. (154080867)

• Fixed: In apps built with the 27.0 SDKs, containerRelativeFrame(_:alignment:) incorrectly accounts for safe-area insets on a ScrollView’s non-scrollable axis, causing the calculated scrollable content size to be too small. For example, a view using containerRelativeFrame(.vertical) inside a horizontal ScrollView extends into vertical safe-area regions, such as the navigation bar and home indicator, because only the scrollable axis insets are applied. (165913417)

• Fixed: Certain control-related view modifiers unexpectedly affect sheet and popover content. In apps built with the 27.0 SDKs, the controlSize, buttonSizing, buttonRepeatBehavior, menuIndicatorVisibility, and ButtonBorderShape environment values are now reset to their default values in sheets and popovers. (167448274)

• Fixed: Menu labels cannot contain controls, views with gestures, or view representables with gesture recognizers. (169091260)

• Fixed: Buttons on tvOS no longer automatically use the accent color from an app’s asset catalog as a label tint color when building against the tvOS 27 SDK. (171830912)

• Fixed: A Button containing both an icon and a title placed inside a List Section header or footer has incorrect spacing between its icon and title. (175681345)

• Fixed: @State variable named using a raw identifier fails to compile. (179149051) (FB23015259)

System

New Features

• System now provides Swift APIs for the C stat, lstat, fstat, and fstatat system calls. This includes a new Stat type with initializers from FilePath, FileDescriptor, or a C string; FilePath.stat() and FileDescriptor.stat() instance methods; and supporting types (FileType, FileMode, FileFlags, UserID, GroupID, DeviceID, and Inode). See SYS-0006 for more details. (160612181)

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: Custom FilePath or FileDescriptor extensions that make unqualified calls to stat() or stat(_) (without the Darwin. qualification) might conflict with the new Swift stat() instance methods introduced in SYS-0006, causing build errors. See SYS-0008 for more details. (177911316)

TextKit

New Features

• NSTextTable and its related objects and types are available to UIKit clients starting with OS 27 releases. (159870239)

UIKit

New Features

• When linked on iOS 27, tvOS 27, macCatalyst 27, or visionOS 27 SDKs, you can use UIScene.extendStateRestoration and UIScene.completeStateRestoration to extend state restoration for UIScene.ActivationState.background to UIScene.ActivationState.foreground lifecycle transitions. (161843040)

Deprecations

• Apps built with the latest SDK must adopt the scene-based life cycle or they fail to launch. For migration guidance, see Transitioning to the UIKit scene-based life cycle. (141837548)

USDKit

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: Some types of USD attributes cannot be read or modified. (170653056)

• Fixed: Array, vector, matrix, and quaternion types cannot be authored using USDKit. (178071414)

VideoToolbox

New Features

• VTLowLatencySuperResolutionScalerConfiguration now supports a 1.5x scale factor. Call +supportedScaleFactorsForFrameWidth:frameHeight: to discover the scale factors available for your source dimensions. (177635243)

• VTLowLatencyFrameInterpolationConfiguration now supports arbitrary source dimensions up to 1080p. (179040806)