Apple TV can do that? The 5 customization options you'll wish you knew sooner

Key Takeaways

You can organize apps into folders for a cleaner look and easy access.
It’s easy to customize screensavers with personal photos or Apple’s options.
Create different profiles for individual customization, or turn on dark mode for a cool look.

It’s no secret the Apple TV 4K is my favorite streaming device, and that’s despite not even owning another Apple product. It’s fast and easy to use, and a very underrated feature lies in its ability to be neatly organized. If you’re somebody who likes to just plug in a device and start using it, the Apple TV 4K is just fine for that. However, if you want to have some extra customization to make your device feel more like your own, that’s an option too.

You get out as much as you put in, so you don’t have to worry about doing any sort of tweaking if you don’t want to. On the other hand, if you download a bunch of apps, it might be easier to de-clutter your home page into folders and make things easier to find. Here are some tips I have to make your Apple TV 4K a little more organized.

Apple TV 4K (2022)

Brand: Apple
Bluetooth codecs: 5.0
Wi-Fi: 6
Ethernet: Gigabit (128GB model only)
Storage and RAM: 64GB, 128GB

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I get what Eli Becht is trying to say in his rumor roundup, but I’ve owned streaming devices from all the major players. In my opinion, Roku is by far the best choice, especially if you’re watching your wallet. It’s way cheaper than Apple TV, supports pretty much every streaming app you could want, and doesn’t lock you into Apple’s ecosystem. Plus, Roku’s interface is super easy to navigate, and the voice remote is awesome, making it simple to find what you’re looking for just by speaking. Even if you’re an Apple user like me, Roku is still great for anyone who just wants to stream their favorite shows without all the extra fuss or expense. What are your thoughts on this — could a new Apple TV really blow Roku or even Amazon and Google out of the water?

1 Organize your apps into folders

Less time looking around

If you put your apps into specific folders, you can save time scrolling through your home screen and more time doing what you want. As an example, you can put your music streaming apps like Apple Music or Spotify into a music folder and separate your Netflix and Max apps into a streaming folder. The process of making a folder is very simple, and all you have to do is follow these steps.

Go to an app on your Apple TV home screen and hold the click pad or touch surface on your remote.
Choose Move To New Folder.
To change the name of the folder, follow step one again and rename it when the screen pops back up.

This type of organization isn’t needed if you don’t have many apps installed as it’s simple enough to head over to them to click them. If you have a bunch of different stuff installed, then you might be better off putting your apps into folders. It’s a simple task that takes a matter of seconds, and it helps give your home screen a much cleaner look. You can always delete apps you don’t use anymore to free up more screen space too.

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2 Give your Apple TV a screensaver

Pick what you want

A screensaver is nice to have if you don’t like looking through the randomized picture every time you leave your Apple TV 4K inactive for a little bit. Instead of letting Apple choose what you see, and you do see some cool pictures to be fair, you can use your own images. If you have a gallery you want to use for your screensaver, follow these steps.

Go to Settings and select Screen Saver.
Choose Memories & Slideshows, and then pick an album you want to use.

This step assumes you have pictures to use, but if you don’t, there are some other ways you can customize your screen savers. Following the same first step, you can select a variety of different options, including aerial images picked by Apple. You can get a good look at the different options available directly from Apple, so don’t feel like you’re locked into only using your personal images.

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3 Make different profiles

Keep things your way

Apple/Pocket-Lint

Similar to creating your own Netflix profile to ensure your algorithm remains yours, you can make a separate Apple TV profile. This means your purchase methods and home page are kept separate from other people on the device, which means what you do on your profile won’t affect another one.

Unfortunately, changing your background does make a blanket change for all users, though.

To create a new profile, all you have to do is go into the settings, select Users and Accounts, and click Add New User. From there, you can customize things to your heart’s desire. It’s a nice touch for families who share the device instead of always watching something together as a group.

An Apple TV 4K and a Siri Remote on a table.

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4 Turn on dark mode

Embrace the darkness

Personally, I feel like dark mode should be a default choice for just about anything, whether it’s Google Chrome, Twitch, or any app you can think of. The Apple TV 4K has the option to toggle on dark mode, and that’s one of the first things I’d do if I picked up a new one today. You have three choices to pick from between automatic, light, and dark. The automatic setting automatically makes the screen dark when the nighttime hours hit, and it stays light during the day.

If you want to make it dark all the time, then open up your settings and click on Appearance. From here, you can select between the three different options and make your pick. This screen also lets you turn on the sleep timer if you’d like. I don’t have much of a use for something like that, so I set mine to the Never setting to ensure it doesn’t turn off unless I want it to.

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5 Toggle on parental controls

Important for parents

Apple TV+

While I don’t have any children, it goes without saying many out there do and don’t want their children to watch things that aren’t age-appropriate. Another thing to avoid is receiving unexpected charges due to a child buying something they shouldn’t have.

To turn on parental controls, all you have to do is open up your settings, go into General, and then select Restrictions. From that point, you need to read the various limitations you can put in place and go from there.