The mute button gets a noticeable upgrade in iOS 18 and tvOS 18

Not all technology or features need to be upgraded over time. Some things work perfectly as is and any changes or “improvements” will only make things worse.

I would have thought that the mute button on a TV was one of those features that you shouldn’t use. It’s simple, uncomplicated, and should stay that way. But Apple changed my mind by introducing an obvious upgrade to the mute button in tvOS 18, iOS 18, and beyond: automatic captions.

Enable subtitles every time you mute the sound

When using an Apple TV running tvOS 18, pressing the mute button on your Siri Remote will now automatically turn on subtitles. Then, when you unmute, the subtitles disappear.

It’s so simple.

How come mute buttons don’t always work this way?

And why did I never realize they were missing this cool little feature?

No more fiddling with the subtitle control panel. No more stopping playback altogether when you can just mute the sound and keep watching. The simple, timeless mute button is getting a whole new level of improvement in 2024 across Apple’s various devices.

• Don’t have a Siri Remote with a mute button? You can get the 3rd generation remote here on Amazon.

Subtitles disabled for all Apple platforms

tvOS is probably the platform where you use the mute button the most, but the same feature is also available on iPhones running iOS 18, iPads running iPadOS 18, and even Macs running macOS Sequoia. So no matter where you’re watching, you can benefit from the new mute feature.

Automatic subtitles when you mute the sound are a feature of the system’s default video player. Therefore, if you watch something in a different video player, you may or may not get this benefit. However, we hope that over time, other popular video apps will create their own support for engaging subtitles when you mute the sound.

What do you think about this new feature coming to tvOS 18 and iOS 18? Let us know in the comments.