Thanks for the link! I just need to be able to launch Channels and then through Home Assistant I’ll be able to tell Alexa to “watch news”! I can also use Home Assistant to turn off the TV, so I’m close.
Unfortunately you can’t give input via Siri, ie name the room you want it to happen in.
You would have to make a shortcut specifically for a channel and room, all hard coded. Then record a voice trigger like you mentioned.
Thanks. I’m not surprised to hear that. Do you know if there is a way to add a previous channel shortcut?
Previous channel isn’t part of the Channels API, so a Shortcut couldn’t do it. But we’ll look at adding it. Thanks!
The Android/Fire platforms have it.
they dont use it thru api. api does not have that feature.
Here’s a shortcut to show what’s currently playing. Can be customized for your favorite channels.
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/742c5a879cc34cf2956b815e820d9f80
Sorry for the necro post...but I just realized that we can now dictate which ATV we want actions to happen on through the Shortcuts app. Has anyone created shortcuts? So far I have created a shortcut to turn on my master bedroom ATV but I'm slowly figuring out I can do a much simpler request using the APIs to tune to a channel.
Here's my Siri shortcuts:
- Wake Family Room ATV
- Open Channels DVR app on Family Room ATV
- Tune to ESPN
- Open Channels DVR app on iPhone
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/f39df32834f04d6fb1632d3312b583dc
It would be great to have a list of all shortcuts everyone has created.
I only have “Turn on Apple TV” and “Turn off Apple TV”.
Is it possible to create shortcuts to record a tv show just by asking Siri?
This is very cool! Dumb question, but is this interactive? Can you touch a show to open it? Or it is strictly informational? I am assuming just informational. Still cool, though!!
Its just informational on iphone home screen. With scriptable scripts it might be possible to present the output as webview and channels as links. Clicking on each link might call a shortcut to launch the channel.
I might try that and let you know. Thanks for suggesting the idea.
Check this updated shortcut and see if it’s useful.
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/0979c569965f4c34853aaed87cce1c1b
VERY useful, works great! Thanks so much for sharing, I’m loving this functionality!
Fun with these 70¢ NFC tags, thanks to Channels, HomeKit, Siri shortcuts and iOS automation.
Now when I put my iPhone on the right side of my living room coffee table, it automatically turns off the lights in the room, turns off the Nanoleaf installation on the wall, the lamp by the front door as well as the adjoining kitchen, it dims the hallways... and it starts playback on the AppleTV of whatever movie is queued up. It’s a quick and easy way to kick off movie night. It also launches the iOS Remote app so it’s quickly available if I need it.
I have another tag, a touch from the iPhone brightens the room lights a bit and pauses the playback of whatever is on AppleTV. This is useful for when I want to run and get a snack or head to the bathroom but don’t want the movie to keep playing while I’m in the other room.
And then another tag that wakes the AppleTV (and turns on the TV if necessary) and then tunes to my preferred default news channel.
This is all made possible because the Channels app is Siri Shortcut-friendly.
I covered the white NFC sticker tags with woodgrain self-adhesive shelf liner, cut to match the circular shape of the tags, so they blend into the coffee table.
Siri Shortcut support has been added to the latest TestFlight Beta. You can use these to launch things on other clients, so gone are the super complicated Shortcuts using the API manually 
More here:
Not super functional, but nice to have. Surprised we can’t tell Siri to skip commercials.
Is there a way to use a variable in siri shortcuts so that when you say "watch x" it will go to that channel without having to hard code each channel in shortcuts? Just not familiar with siri shortcuts that much.