Guide · Automation Easy

Open Theatrium automatically automatically

Set your Apple TV to switch off when you head out, and to be on and showing Theatrium when you get back. You build this yourself in the Apple Shortcuts app — it runs on your phone, and nothing in Theatrium tracks where you are. This page is just the how-to.

YOU LEAVE TV goes to sleep YOU ARRIVE Theatrium already on

What you need. The Apple Shortcuts app on your iPhone (it comes with iOS), your Apple TV set up in the Apple Home app on your phone, and location permission for the Apple Shortcuts app so it knows when you come and go. You can set up either half on its own.

It depends on your setup. This uses features Apple provides, and how well they work is down to your equipment, not Theatrium:

  • A reasonably recent Apple TV — the older the model and the tvOS version, the less reliable waking on arrival tends to be.
  • Whether your television turns on with the Apple TV. Many TVs do this over HDMI (Apple calls it “turn on your TV with your remote”); if yours does not, the Apple TV will wake but the screen may stay dark until you turn the TV on.
1

Wake your Apple TV and open Theatrium when you get home

Open the Apple Shortcuts app and tap the Automation tab. Tap +, choose Arrive, pick your home, then Next.

Add the action Open App on Apple TV. Tap the greyed-out words to choose your Apple TV, then choose Theatrium.

Turn off Ask Before Running so it happens on its own, and tap Done. Opening the app wakes the TV, so there is no separate wake step.

2

Turn your Apple TV off when you leave

Tap + again and choose Leave, with the same home location.

Add Control Home (called Set Accessory State on some versions), choose your Apple TV from your accessories, and set it to off.

Turn off Ask Before Running, and tap Done. Turning a TV off is a television command rather than an app one, which is why this half goes through the Home actions.

Good to know

  • It triggers from a fair distance. iOS treats you as having arrived from a generous radius around home, not right at the door — which gives the Apple TV time to switch on before you sit down.
  • Nothing happens the first time. iOS usually asks to confirm a new automation once before it will run unattended. Allow it and it runs by itself from then on.
  • It runs when you did not expect. Passing near home can be enough. Widening the location in the automation usually settles it.
  • It affects whoever is home. Leaving turns the TV off even if somebody else is watching. The Apple Shortcuts app can only tell whether your phone has left.
  • These are personal automations tied to your phone, so somebody else arriving first will not trigger them.

Why Theatrium cannot just do this

Opening an app on a television, and putting one to sleep, are both things iOS keeps to itself and to the Apple Shortcuts app. No app is allowed to do either directly — which is why this is set up once in the Apple Shortcuts app rather than being a switch inside Theatrium.