Watchlist for Apple TV is the library you keep on iPhone, iPad and Mac, laid out for the sofa. It arrives through your own iCloud account: open Watchlist on the TV with the same Apple Account and everything you follow is there, with no sign-in and nothing to set up.
Finding your way around
The sidebar holds the same places as on your other devices:
- Watch: the videos you kept, with the next one in your queue filling the screen. Edit reorders Up Next.
- Review: new uploads waiting for a yes or no. Save keeps one and Dismiss lets it go; Dismiss All clears the lot. Uploads your filters are holding back are marked Filtered.
- History: everything you have watched.
- Channels: the channels you follow. Sort them, show them as a list, hide channels with nothing waiting, or choose Add Channel to follow a new one.
- Collections: your collections, with their saved videos.
- Search: videos and channels, by title or name.
- Settings: your plan, iCloud sync and Hide YouTube Shorts.
Watching
Apple TV plays through the YouTube app. Open a video and choose Watch on YouTube: Watchlist opens it there and marks it as watched, so it leaves your queue on every device. Coming back to Watchlist returns you to where you were. A video you have already seen offers Watch Again on YouTube.
Add to Up Next, Play Next and Mark as Watched are on a video’s page too, with its details.
Your plan
Setting up
The first time, Watchlist walks through the same pages as on iPhone: what it is, how it connects to YouTube, which you agree to once on this Apple TV, and your plan. If you already use Watchlist elsewhere, it says your library is on its way and fills in from iCloud.
Everything on the TV changes your library for every device: saving, dismissing and reordering here show up on your iPhone and Mac through iCloud, as they do the other way round.