After its debut on the Apple TV in 2019, the Aerial screen savers—with their overhead, slow-moving shots of cities, landscapes, and even space—were so popular that they were added to the Mac with macOS Sonoma. With tvOS 18, Apple added a Portraits screen saver feature, which lets you display portrait photos in combination with a large digital clock on your TV set, similar to the portrait-style wallpapers available on iPhone and Apple Watch. If you’re ready for a new visual experience, here’s how to set it up.
How to Set Up Portraits Screen Savers
Before you can use the Portraits screen saver feature, you’ll need to be running tvOS 18 and own an Apple TV 4K (2nd generation or later) which debuted in 2021. The current version of the hardware is the 4K (3rd generation). Don’t know what model you own? Here’s how to find out.
(Credit: Tyler Hayes)
To get started, head to the Settings app on your Apple TV, select Screen Saver > Current Selection > Portraits.
Note: The software will need to process your photos before this screen saver is available. In my experience, this took a few days after upgrading to tvOS 18. Your results will vary, depending on the size of your photo library. In the meantime, the Portraits option will remain grayed out.
(Credit: Tyler Hayes)
The Portraits screen saver will display the time in various fonts and locations on the screen, depending on the photos it selects, but you can’t directly choose the color, style, and placement. Part of that is because the time will integrate with the photo and appear behind certain elements.
(Credit: Tyler Hayes)
You do have control over whether the Portraits screen saver shows photos of people, pets, nature, or cities. Each of these categories can be hidden or shown. Click on each category to toggle the option.
With the people category, you can also decide whether it shows all people or only those in your favorites. You can also choose how often the portrait photos are updated.
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(Credit: Tyler Hayes)
How to Quickly Change Apple TV Screen Savers
New with tvOS 18 is the ability to change screen savers without going back into the Settings app. Again, this is a feature limited to Apple TV 4K (2nd gen or later) hardware.
While a screen saver is active, swipe up or click up on the Apple TV remote to view a menu of the different screen saver options. Swipe left or right to select one without disrupting the screen saver flow. Similarly, you can swipe left or right on the touchpad to cycle through images.
You can also tap the remote control touchpad to identify the current screen saver. This will display the location of the aerial image or the name of the memory being displayed.
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About Tyler Hayes
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