Apple TV apps can now be up to 20x bigger

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apple tv and siri remote
Apple TV apps can now be 4GB right from the start.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s plan to make the modern TV experience all about apps has just gotten a big boost, with Apple upping the size limit of tvOS apps from 200MB to 4GB.

For those keeping track at home, it’s a whopping 20x the original size limit — and means that Apple TV apps can now be as big as the ones developers can submit for iOS.

According to Apple, this decision allows developers to “provide a complete, rich user experience upon installation.” As is currently the case, tvOS apps are able to host up to 20GB of additional content on the App Store.

As good news as this is, however, it should be noted that the fourth-gen Apple TV is 32GB and 64GB configurations.

By comparison, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus both ship with a choice of 32GB, 128GB and 256GB storage configurations — meaning that you can store a lot more apps on a top-of-the-range iPhone than you can a top-of-the-range Apple TV.

Apple didn’t give an explanation as to why it had decided to reverse its earlier policy of limiting the size of apps to stop users filling up their Apple TVs too quickly. Hopefully this means a potential fifth-generation Apple TV will boast considerably more storage, however.

The fourth-gen Apple TV was released back in October 2015.

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