Sky Glass and Stream getting the most significant free upgrade in years – a next-gen game changer to give Sky's UK customers "more control"

I've been covering Sky's set-top-boxes, TVs and services for a long time and once or twice a year I get an early chance to check out the new features coming to customers. And most of the time that includes a handful of new features or capabilities coming to the company's devices.

Every so often, there's something bigger than that – a chance to see a series of software enhancements that completely change the experience. Today was one of those times.

Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers are in for a treat "later this year", as a new Sky OS front end is on its way with a host of significant tweaks and new modes that not only resolve some of my own quibbles with the system, but answer questions I didn't even know I had.

Currently being trialled publicly by a select group of Sky Glass owners, the new software makes it easier to navigate around Sky's streaming devices, find relevant content more easily, and helps lessen the need to doomscroll your way down rails to find areas important to you.

This includes smarter, AI-powered voice control, an easier way to jump into live TV shows, and the return of recordings.

Here then are the biggest changes coming to your Sky Glass or Sky Stream soon.

A new menu bar

Perhaps the first thing you'll notice on the homescreen is an all-new menu bar at the top. Looking a bit like Apple's Liquid Glass iOS design (Liquid Sky Glass?), the transparent bar makes it much easier to quickly get to different sections of the Sky experience.

The menu hosts tabs for Home, TV Guide, My Library, Sport, My Account, plus easy access to text search and settings. And on the far left is a clock-style icon for what is currently termed "Recents" but could change in name.

Home is exactly what you expect, although there are some design tweaks to the main page too. The top of the screen no longer shows an image of the show or app you've clicked on, but a selection of curated content that rotates to help you discover something new.

In addition, if you tap up on the remote, it will transform into a large video trailer of that content.

TV Guide should be self-explanatory. By simply tapping right on the remote you can instantly access the electronic programme guide, which now uses channel icons rather than plain text to make things more recognisable.

You can jump straight into live TV from here, or set future programmes to record (more on that later). This reduces the number of clicks you've previously needed to use to get to live TV. Sky has even removed the picture-in-picture step, so you go straight into the full screen feed.

When you retreat from live TV, then you'll get the PIP feed in the bottom right-hand corner, but even then you just need to hit the back button to return to full screen.

My Library is the new name of the Playlist section. It will give you everything you have stored as part of your profile, all in an easier to find area. This will include programmes and series you have placed on your Watchlist as well as Recordings.

You can also add your favourite actors and sports teams to your profile, so related content for either will also appear here.

The Sports section is also now easier to find, all through the menu bar. As are My Account to check your details, text search and the Settings. I can't be the only one who found having to scroll down multiple rails just to change the video or audio modes frustrating.

Welcome to Recents and Recordings

The final main new tab can be found on the left of the new menu bar. Currently dubbed "Recents" it gives you a shortcut to everything you've been doing on your Glass or Stream box recently.

That includes the Continue Watching rail, which can now be found in its own section, recent channels you've visited, and recent apps you've opened. It makes it much quicker to find the content you care about most.

I particularly like that the apps rail can be found there and is just three rails down, so it's much quicker to find and open a specific app than it has been. Of course, as I was reminded during my demo, I could have just used the voice remote and say "YouTube", but I keep forgetting. Don't judge me.

On top of Recents, another welcome addition is Recordings. This is not new, of course, as you've had the ability to record shows to the cloud since Sky Glass first launched. But Sky hasn't made a big song and dance about it before, preferring to refer to cloud recordings and playlisting as one and the same.

It is now making the messaging more clear. Shows can either be put on your watchlist or set to record. And that includes individual programmes, not just entire series.

I've always had an issue with the Playlist function in that, if I just want to watch an F1 GP but not the practice sessions, I've still had to add the coverage in general to my Playlist and wade through the additional broadcasts. And the service would continue to add every subsequent event until I took it off the list.

Now though, I can select the forthcoming show in the EPG and be faced with new options – Record Show, Record Series or add to my Watchlist. This can be profile specific too. And even though the content will be recorded to Sky's cloud servers rather than a local HDD, those who like managing their recordings (a la Sky Q) can now do so.

What's more, you have 1,000 hours of recordings you can store before needing to delete some. This, Sky said, is the equivalent of 500 days worth of Peppa Pig, if you watch it day and night without sleep.

Basically, you are never going to run out of space.

One caveat is that not all channels allow you to record shows. The BBC, for example, will still only allow you to Watchlist shows and view them through iPlayer. But all of Sky's own channels, including Sky Sports, will.

Smart Voice

Also coming to Sky Glass and Sky Stream is a smarter, AI-powered voice assistant.

You can currently use keywords and simple phrases to control your Sky devices via the voice remote, but the next-gen service will enable a more contextual, natural way of interacting with the operating system.

Entirely centred on entertainment and content discovery, it will not only find shows and movies for you to enjoy, but information about them – gleaned from the likes of Wikipedia.

This also includes from within a show itself. You can ask a question about the film or programme and it'll pop up at the top of the screen, leaving your viewing uninterrupted.

For example, during my demo we asked, "Find me that movie where Tom Hanks is stranded on a desert island." The assistant pulled up the page for Castaway. We could then follow it up with a contextual question, such as, "Has it won any awards?"

Another good example was asking Smart Voice, "What time is Celebrity Traitors on this week?" Not only did it tell us, but it brought up the page so we could save it to the Watchlist.

The new assistant has also been tweaked graphically, to look more like it's listening to you and responding. And those worrying about privacy or AI tomfoolery needn't – Sky has guardrails in place and ensures it remains on message. You can only really ask it questions on entertainment or to control the service.

It'll be interesting to see where this goes too, as there's even more potential for greater interaction down the line – such as guides and information on the hardware.

When is the new Sky OS coming?

Many of these changes, new features and tweaks are already being tested in a closed public trial, along with quite a few others. Sadly, you cannot currently sign up to test them yourself.

However, T3 was told that the first software update will arrive "before the end of the year" – and is expected relatively soon.

I'll also be testing it more myself to bring you additional thoughts on the new Sky OS, so you bring you further updates in the coming days and weeks.

Until then, I like what I've seen so far and most of the enhancements are exactly that. And the best news is you won't have to pay a penny more to get them.