Best tvOS apps for Apple TV: games, organizers, educational tools and more

Introduction

If you are looking for the best tvOS apps for Apple TV then you've come to the right place my friend. Here we have a handful of top apps for all the family, ranging from neat content organizers to games for the kids, and onto educational software from Nasa and more. So grab your remote and get ready to enjoy the best that tvOS and Apple TV has to offer.

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Zinc

If watching online video is what you crave, Zinc makes it supereasy to bookmark content from all over the internet, then watch them on Apple TV from the comfort of your sofa. It’s sort of like an Instapaper for videos – forget about saving YouTube links or trying to remember where you saw a funny video, because Zinc wants to be the only app you’ll ever need to watch them all. There are a few different ways to bookmark videos: on your iPhone, use the sharing extension to add videos from Safari and other supported apps. There’s also a Safari for Mac extension, and bookmarklets for Chrome and Firefox, making it easy to bookmark from whatever platform you happen to be using at the time.

The Zinc app automatically sorts videos into New, Watched or All categories, making whatever you want to watch a snap. At any time, you can mark a video as a favourite or change its watched/unwatched status. The iPhone app also features a sharing extension for sending videos to friends.

Price: £2.29 | Buy Zinc

PhotoWall+

Next time you have guests coming over for a party, make sure they bring their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch along, then fire up your Apple TV and let the fun begin. Together with its free iOS companion app (sorry, Android users), PhotoWall+ enables partygoers to capture photos of the event and throw them up on the big screen for all to enjoy.

When guests aren’t adding new pictures, PhotoWall+ automatically generates a slideshow of everything taken thus far, complete with your choice of transition. New pics are added as they’re taken, but you can pause the slideshow at any time using the Siri Remote and manually browse at your own pace.

After everyone has gone home, log in to PhotoWall’s web app from any browser to download JPEG files of everything guests shared to archive copies permanently – saving you having to nag them later on to send their photos to you. Easy and fun!

Price: £3.99 | Buy PhotoWall+

MathBoard TV

Here’s an educational Apple TV app that actually grows with your kids, starting with simple addition and subtraction problems in nursery, and going all the way through their primary school years, where learning multiplication and division skills truly becomes a challenge.

Parents can configure the app to match the abilities of the individual student, and MathBoard encourages kids to actually solve problems, rather than simply guess at potential answers.

Should they get stuck on a particular maths challenge, the handy Problem Solver is ready and waiting to offer assistance whenever the need arises. It walks students through the steps required to tackle addition, subtraction, multiplication or division equations.

MathBoard could very well be the only homework aide your children ever need for their maths work. The app also supports multiple student profiles, so siblings of different ages are catered for separately.

Price: £3.99 | Buy MathBoard TV

Nasa

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has had an iPhone app for years, and now there’s a lovely version for Apple TV. It was worth the wait – if you’re the least bit interested in science or outer space, this deserves a prominent position on your Home screen. For starters, there’s a beautiful live view of Earth broadcast from the International Space Station, as well as NASA TV’s public and media channels. There’s also a library of on-demand videos with more than 10,000 different clips, another 14,000 high-res still images (and counting), plus a special category called Earth as Art.

Although NASA missions may not be as thrilling now that the Space Shuttle has been decommissioned, you can still keep tabs on current events with images, 3D views, and detailed information such as when they were launched. The app notifies you about upcoming object sightings – perfect when the ISS will pass by your location. You can also chill out to Third Rock, an internet radio channel with an interstellar angle.

Price: Free | Get Nasa

Mr. Potato Head: School Rush

If you thought Mr. Potato Head was just a plastic toy, think again! This new interactive storybook brings the character to life as he attempts to get viewers to school on time with hilarious consequences. Mrs. Potato Head has also come along for the ride, adding to the on-screen mayhem with story–driven costume and part changes as kids try to keep both members of the Potato Head family in one piece.

The app includes great cinematic animation and interactive moments, and features eight different locations including the Parts Emporium, where the Potato Heads can grab a new hat or switch body parts before embarking on misadventures in the ocean, outer space, a junkyard, a construction site, a pirate ship, and more! A single purchase of the app also delivers the fun to any iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad that you’ve connected to the Apple ID you use with the App Store.

Price: £2.99 | Buy Mr. Potato Head: School Rush

Play Doh Fun

If your kids like to make stuff with Play-Doh, there’s now a free Apple TV app that’ll keep them busy for weeks doing just that. Though this isn’t an officially sanctioned Hasbro app, it does offer plenty of ideas and instructional videos on how to turn everyone’s favourite flour, water, salt, boric acid, and mineral oil-based modelling compound into all kinds of cool stuff. 

From assembling activity sets to dollcraft and fun time DIY projects like a paint set, a corn-on-the-cob, and a rainbow with a pot of gold, the ideas are endless. There are event videos on creating a smartphone out of Play-Doh, a Pac-Man and four ghosts (one of our favourites), and,  of course, a Minion from the popular Despicable Me series. 

Many of the videos are hosted by HappyKids.tv’s Maria, an exuberant youngster who guides your kids step-by-step through each creation and is a great host for this kind of fun.

Price: Free | Get Play Doh Fun

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