Apple removes ‘Siri Remote’ entries in tvOS 14.5 Beta, renames ‘Home’ button

Apple today released the fifth beta of tvOS 14.5 and some minor but notable changes in the update have been found by MacRumors contributor Steve MoserApple removes entries from the “Siri Remote” and replaces them with “Apple TV Remote” throughout the operating system.

The Siri remote has always been the Apple TV remote in countries where Siri functionality is not available on Apple TV, but now Apple uses the Apple TV Remote wording in countries where the remote was previously called Sir Siri.

This could just be a general clean-up of the language as it is not really necessary to refer to it as the ‌ Siri‌ remote, but it does suggest that the next generation ‌ Apple TV‌ remote will not be called the ‌ Siri‌ remote and a simpler name will have .

Apple is rumored to be working on a new version of the ‌Apple TV‌ due out this year, and it will be accompanied by a revamped remote with Find My capabilities. Little else is known about the remote control at this point.

tvOS 14.5 also renames the “Home Button” under the “Remotes and Devices” section to “TV Button”, but functionality is ultimately the same and can be set to go to the ‌Apple TV‌ app or home screen. This could also be an adjustment made for a future remote control.

Previous betas have introduced support for the latest PlayStation and Xbox controllers, plus frame rate options have been tweaked, with Apple now offering 29.97Hz and 59.94Hz refresh rates instead of 30Hz / 60Hz.

There is also an optional ‘Type to Siri’ accessibility feature that can be enabled, which mirrors the Type to Siri feature on iOS devices, a new option to choose ‘Other Wireless Speakers’ as the default audio output, and customizations to the Podcasts app to bring it in line with the changes introduced in iOS 14.5.