YouTube will finally stream videos in 4K on the Apple TV 4K with tvOS 14

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Best Apple TV of 2021
Best Apple TV of 2021 (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • YouTube will begin to stream in 4K on Apple TV 4K in tvOS 14.
  • Apple made the announcement in its feature list for tvOS 14.
  • Up until now, YouTube streaming has been limited to 1080p.

Streaming YouTube in 4K has been missing on the Apple TV 4K since its launch, but it looks like the wait will soon be over. Buried in the feature list for tvOS 14, Apple has announced that it is bringing 4K streaming to the YouTube app for the Apple TV 4K.

"Watch the latest YouTube videos in their full 4K glory. Your favorite music, slo-mo, outdoor, and vlog footage never looked better."

Tvos 14 Feature List

Tvos 14 Feature List (Image credit: Apple)

4K streaming for the YouTube app, as explained by The Verge, has been limited to 1080p because Apple has refused to support the VP9 codec, which YouTube uses for its entire library. The outlet has reached out to Apple and Google to find out if Apple has begun to support the codec or if YouTube has made a change on their end to support the Apple TV 4K.

Currently, users are also unable to stream YouTube in 4K through Safari because of the same issue, but Apple has not mentioned whether or not the new version of Safari in macOS Big Sur will support 4K streaming for YouTube.

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Joe Wituschek
Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.