10 Easy Shortcuts to Automate Your Apple TV!

Enhance your Apple TV experience with these 10 easy-to-build Shortcuts! From waking your TV to launching apps and controlling playback, these automations make your TV viewing even better.

📺 Videos Mentioned

Shortcuts 101 - 7 Easy Shortcuts

13 Easy YouTube Shortcuts!

Top 10 Home Automations

🏠 Full List of Current Apple Home Devices

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:25 Wake Apple TV
00:57 Sleep Apple TV
01:58 Pause and Resume
02:24 Skip Forward / Back
02:49 Open Apple TV Remote
03:04 Open Apple TV App
03:31 Apple TV Screensaver
03:43 YouTube App Automation
04:47 Apple TV Action Button
05:21 HomeKit + Apple TV Actions
06:33 Apple TV Captions

My Gear:

[snyeah]

Thanks for the great video! Is there any workaround to sleep an AppleTV through a HomeKit scene?

[donr.]

Great content! I created a shortcut copying one of your Apple TV shortcuts. I can get it to turn on, select account, open app (fitness), but how do I get it to select only my Apple Watch and not another device in the household listed? Thanks!

[EricWelander]

Great suggestions for Apple TV shortcuts with clear instructions.

I still think you should make a scene for your bedroom though. That way when you change accessories in there you don’t have to change this shortcut. But it is nice to show the flexibility of what that control home action can do.

[drjekyll]

Thanks for the Video! While in theory I know of the possibilities of shortcuts, it‘s always great to see some inspiration on how to actually make something useful.

[MortyP]

Your videos are very helpful and clever!
This is a great folder with Apple shortcuts.

Any chance to share the 10 shortcuts? 🙏🏼

[SoufBayDad]

Killer video and I was hoping to have the shortcuts linked below. I’ve watched it twice but the kids keep interrupting me so I haven’t got one done yet 😂. I’ll have to keep watching to get them.

[chrispowers]

Thanks, getting some super ideas!
By chance, is there a command to use in a shortcut that’ll set / assign a Sonos AirPlay2 speaker as the “active” speaker for an Apple TV to use? Had tried Handoff Playback and set playback but neither seemed to have the desired result.

[tjhjr]

Great video, I'm now starting to use a feature I've been ignoring until now.

The shortcut for waking an Apple TV on a desktop Mac (Studio) brings up an error "This action cannot be run because a required app is missing"....huh?

[BreakTime]

Great video. I wish there was a shortcut to close all apps before going to sleep.

[VioletTheCamaro]

Great straightforward video. Is there a way to play Apple Music when the screensaver is enabled? Or how do you get the state of the Apple TV 4K

[TheGreatTomDix]

Holy shit! This is programmer level to me!

Does anyone know if there is a way to get an Apple TV to launch an Xbox with the infrared. I wanna get an Apple command to launch 90's AV equipment and have a full range of IR.

[MarkoMarkolovic]

Is it possible to mirror the iPad screen to a particular Apple TV using shortcuts?

[xxogrelicxx]

Thanks for the video! Is there a way for me to launch an app when the apple tv is idle/standby? End goal - I have a kitchen TV that displays a web-based calendar/dashboard (dakboard). I am looking at using xcode to sideload tvOSBrowser on the apple tv, and would like the apple tv to 'launch' my dashboard when idle rather than the screensaver. I've been using a rasperry pi for years on this tv, but it's a 1 trick pony and I want to upgrade. :)

[cwfeldmann]

Is there a way to launch a YouTube Live Stream directly? We have a room we want to have tune into a livestream every week but I'm unsure if Apple TV is the right box to be considering.

[anwivan]

Is it possible to have a shortcut for 'wake apple tv' but run the shortcut from a Mac ?

[danghiepchannel]

Hi. Can you instruct me how to do this: when I say Siri, movie time, the Apple TV will open Netflix, and specific scene will turn on as well?

[juancaracoza]

Is there a shortcut/automation that when someone rings the doorbell, it automatically wakes Apple TV on and shows the live video on the tv?

[ash]

Which Apple TV generation are you using?

[HookEmNBookEm]

I don’t get it. You have to pull out your phone, open it up, then pull up automations as opposed to just using the remote? Doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe I missed something.

[BMarandonly]

2:54 if only shortcuts worked. Before iOS 17 I had my AppleTV wake up, open up the remote app, and load into my account. This now only wakes the Apple TV and logs into my account. 99% of the time I still have to select the specific TV and even when I do sometimes it kicks me out and makes me select again or the swipe (aka scrolling) doesnt work I can only click “enter” or “back” but jot swipe. It’s a hot mess for several weeks now. Sucks this was one of my go toos