The AppleTV is a fairly straightforward device; connect it to an external display and stream content to it via apps. The primary interface for using the AppleTV is equally as straightforward. It’s a simple remote with 9 buttons on it; 8 on the face of it and one on the side to activate voice commands.
The AppleTV (Siri Remote) largely sticks to conventions that have been around for 50+ years. As an example, here is an image of a vintage RCA VCR remote:
And here is the current AppleTV remote:
If I were to ask anyone that has used a remote control that rewinds and fast-forward’s video I think that they could instantly figure out how to do that on the AppleTV remote. Despite this, YouTube’s latest version of the AppleTV app brings up this interface when pressing either the left or right directional buttons:
And now I want a good Margarita but I digress. Instead of jumping back or forward through a video it now brings up an overlay and immediately focuses on the play / pause button. Why? First of all this is completely redundant as there is a button on the AppleTV remote that does this exact thing. There is no reason to break 50 years of convention to do this. If you keep pressing the left buttons you’ll go from the play /pause button to the bell icon, the description, and the channel link. Going right, you’ll go to the upvote icon, down vote icon, comments, etc. Huh? Did someone forgot to tell them how people interact with this device? What’s more important rewinding and fast-forwarding a video or clicking the bell icon?
If you’re wondering “well how the hell do I actually rewind or fast-forward a video?” the answer is that you have to tap to go up to the timeline and then you can use the back and forward buttons. They changed something that took one click into taking at least two but likely more than three clicks.
I really don’t understand what the reasoning behind these changes are but I certainly hope that they revert this change.