Apple is working on a multiview sports feature that supports four simultaneous streams

The upcoming Multiview feature improves on Apple’s picture-in-picture mode, and you’ll especially enjoy it when your favorite teams play at different times.

• What’s happening? Apple is testing a new Multiview feature that will allow four video streams in the TV app on Apple TV and (possibly) other devices.
• Why care? Similar to ESPN+’s MultiCast, this takes picture-in-picture to a whole new level as you can watch multiple games at the same time.
• What to do? Update your Apple TV when tvOS 16.5 comes out.

Apple is testing multiview for live sports

Apple’s Picture-in-Picture feature supports watching videos in a floating window while using other apps. Picture-in-Picture works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, but does not support multiple videos at the same time. This may change soon.

Code researcher Steve Moser spotted references to significant improvement in picture-in-picture functionality in iOS 16.5 code, posting his findings on Twitter.

The lines he found in the iOS 16.5 code mention a four-box picture-in-picture mode called Multiview, which is currently in development. This will be especially useful if your favorite teams play at different times.

It’s unclear which devices Multiview will support, but the Apple TV seems like the obvious choice. We don’t know if Apple will allow Multiview in third party apps.

Apple is building a library of sports content in the TV and News apps. For example, in iOS 16.5, the News app has a dedicated Sports tab at the bottom.

When will Multiview launch?

Multiview sports links didn’t appear in older versions of iOS, so we’re guessing that Apple has just started testing this feature.

It may arrive as part of the iOS 16 update cycle or launch alongside iOS 17 and other updates next year. We hope that new Apple TV hardware will not be required to process four full-resolution video streams simultaneously.

Multiview can be especially useful for watching four simultaneous sports broadcasts without switching apps. If you’ve ever tried ESPN’s MultiCast feature, you know how useful it can be. If Apple launches the Multiview feature, we suspect it will be limited to MLS and MLB games on the TV app at first.