Ask HN: No easy way for tvOS to display long documents (e.g., terms of service)?
tvOS apps need to display terms of service and privacy policies but there is no public API that can be used to easily display long documents that require scrolling.
Why not?
A QR code for someone to read on their phone would probably be the easiest for the user, if that’s allowed.
TV platforms are designed for a remote-controlled, sit-back-and-watch user experience, which is ill-suited for reading long legal documents.
The user is experience is poor for long-form reading:
- reading at a distance: key design principle for a TV user experience is that the interface is viewed from 10". Trying to read a lengthy legal document on a television screen from across the room would be frustrating and cause eye strain
- inefficient navigation: TV user interfaces are optimized for media playback and navigating visual content, not for scrolling through pages of text. Focus-based LRUD interfaces make it difficult to read a continuous block of text and quickly find specific clauses
These legal documents are required though even for tvOS apps.
Does not mean it has to be within the TV app.
What is more common to do is:
- display condensed version in-app
- host online
Because they don't care.
I can play a 3d game with online elements using a bluetooth gamepad, directly on my 8yo "smart tv", but somehow it's impossible to conveniently display text.
It's annoying and it's not just a problem of tvOS.There is just no incentive to make ToS easily readable to users of any hardware platform.