Hi folks! My name is Evan, and I’m a Senior Manager in our Game Engineering team at Zwift.
Along with the new Zwift home screen rolling out for the Apple TV platform, I wanted to share a bit more about some of the improvements we’ve made for Apple TV remotes. We know it’s been difficult and frustrating using Apple TV remotes in Zwift, and with our 1.29 game update, we rolled out our first batch of improvements to this experience, with several more on the way for upcoming releases. These improvements work across all Apple TV remotes, including the Apple Remote (“aluminum”), Siri Remote (1st generation), and Siri Remote (2nd generation).
When you receive the new Zwift home screen update on your Apple TV, you’ll notice major changes to the overall user experience which is now cleaner, simpler, and easier to navigate. This also makes it much easier to navigate with the Apple TV remote, especially when selecting Pacer Group rides or Workouts. Check out my teammate Ryan’s post above for more information about the new home screen update!
Regardless of whether you’ve received the new home screen update or not, we fixed several additional issues with Apple TV remotes for everyone in the 1.29 game update:
We fixed some issues that made it difficult (or in some cases, impossible) to navigate through and select items in the Garage with Apple TV remotes.
We also rolled out several improvements to how Apple TV remotes work across menus throughout the game. We improved tab navigation and toggle switches, like the Ride/Run selector, your avatar’s head type / hair / facial hair selector in the Garage, and the Workouts/Plans selector. We made navigation behavior consistent regardless of whether you have a remote with a trackpad that supports touch/swipe navigation (like the Siri Remotes), or remotes that have physical navigation buttons (like the Apple Remote and Siri Remotes).
We have several additional improvements for Apple TV remotes actively in development and being tested, and we’ll be rolling those out as soon as possible in our upcoming game updates. If you encounter issues with Apple TV remotes, please let us know in the comments below along with which remote and Apple TV version you are using.
Ride on.
Evan