Run an Apple TV simulator in your browser

Why TV tests break, and what we do instead

Most TV automation replays remote presses. Three rights and a select is a correct description of your app only while nothing moves. Add a row above the shelf, reorder the tiles, ship a new promo slot — the same presses now land somewhere else, and the run either fails for a reason that has nothing to do with the bug you were looking for, or passes having selected the wrong thing.

VibeView records the element that held focus at each press. On replay it navigates focus back to that element and verifies it arrived before continuing. The destination was never a count of presses, so a new tile does not invalidate the test.

This is where tvOS has a genuine advantage over Android TV. Focus on Apple TV comes from the platform's own automation layer, which exposes the element tree and the live focus state of the running app. There is nothing for your app to opt into and nothing to instrument. On Android TV the equivalent depends on the app surfacing focus to the accessibility layer, and apps that track focus only in their own code never do. That whole category of failure is absent here.

AI-driven runs get the same benefit through two focus tools: one moves focus to an element and selects it, the other moves focus without selecting so a step can check state first — instead of chaining direction presses and hoping.

Tests do not cross form factors

A suite written against your iPhone app will not drive your tvOS app. Steps address elements by accessibility id or text label, which carries across platforms — but only between matching form factors: phone to phone, TV to TV. Budget for a TV suite of its own. Nobody gets to copy the phone one across.

Two things to check on the build: the bundle needs an arm64 slice, because our simulators run on Apple silicon, and a device .ipa is rejected outright. See preparing your build for the exact command.

Runs, meanwhile, are kept with their status, duration, cost and the model that drove them.

React Native TV teams also get live development: a cloud Apple TV connected to the Metro bundler on your own machine, with Fast Refresh landing about a second after you save.

What this does not do

Available Apple TV models come from the simulator set installed on our workers rather than a fixed published list, so check the device picker for what is live now.

What it costs

Pricing is per organization rather than per seat, so the team shares one pool of sessions and credit. Streaming is metered on every plan, overage bills at $0.06 a minute on Free or $0.04 on paid plans against usage credit, and overage can be switched off so sessions stop instead of billing. AI runs can go through your own provider key, which takes model cost off our bill entirely.

The free tier is a tier, not a trial: two concurrent sessions, 30 streaming minutes a month, $1 of credit refilling monthly, up to 3 people, no card. Each free session ends after 5 minutes, which is tight for TV work where one navigation pass can eat most of that.

Upload your tvOS build on the free tier and drive it with the arrow keys, or read TV testing for the focus model in full.

Frequently asked questions

How do I control an Apple TV simulator in a browser?

With your keyboard. Arrow keys move focus, Enter selects, Escape goes back. Touch is disabled on TV sessions — clicking the video does nothing, because a tvOS app has no touch model to receive it. Key forwarding pauses while your cursor sits in a text field elsewhere on the page.

Why do recorded tvOS tests break when the layout changes?

Because most tools replay the remote presses rather than the destination. Three rights and a select describes your app only until a tile is added. VibeView records which element held focus at each press and navigates back to that element on replay, confirming focus arrived before continuing.

Is focus tracking reliable on tvOS?

More so than on Android TV, and for a structural reason. tvOS exposes focus through the platform's own automation layer, so we read focus state from the element itself rather than inferring it. Android TV depends on the app surfacing focus to the accessibility layer, which not every app does. On Apple TV that class of problem does not arise.

Can I upload the .ipa our pipeline produces?

No. An .ipa is a device build and will not install on a simulator. You need a build compiled against the tvOS simulator SDK — a .app bundle, compressed to .zip, .tar.gz or .tgz, up to 500 MB. It must include an arm64 slice, since our simulators run on Apple silicon.

Do I need a Mac to use this?

Not to run or test the app — a browser is enough, on Windows or Linux included. You do need a Mac somewhere to produce the tvOS simulator build in the first place, whether that is a developer's machine or a CI runner. Once the build is uploaded, everyone else only needs a URL.

Can tvOS tests run in CI?

Yes. The CLI runs a single test or a whole suite against an Apple TV device and returns human, JSON or JUnit output with exit codes. Runs pin to a specific build, and results post back as GitHub commit statuses, webhooks or Slack messages.