Facebook might just turn out to be the company that shows Apple how to streamline tvOS app account authentication, thanks to its recently released software development kit (SDK.)

What used to be a cumbersome process of tapping login and password information using the Apple TV's remote can now be made simple. That is, if you use Facebook's recently released beta version of SDK for tvOS, with login support.

With this SDK, developers can enable Apple TV owners to log in to their Facebook accounts by entering on a smartphone or computer a confirmation code which appears onscreen on the Apple TV's display. Until the easier method appeared, users who wanted to open up their Facebook on the Apple TV had to fumble with the Siri Remote to enter their login details, and reviews of the functionality were sub-mediocre.

Actually, the only area where the tvOS is lackluster is the handling of app logins. Another minus of the tvOS is that the ecosystem fails to recognize universal authentication, which means that every time a user wants to access a non-Apple app, such as HBO or Netflix, they need to log in manually.

The former Apple TV text grid was replaced with a linear character picker, allowing users to select letter, number and special characters, as well as caps lock, in a time-consuming manner. The user interface of former Apple TVs supported cursor wrapping, but that function is gone. This makes users swipe a lot on the Siri Remote touchpad to complete the text fields. Somewhat surprising, in spite of Apple's voice recognition technology, there is no VoiceOver text input in Apple Tv's interface.

Users also complained about the lack of support for Apple's app Remote, which would enable Mac, iPhone or iPad users to use their external or touchscreen keyboards to faster complete text fields. Apple decided differently, so owners of fourth-generation Apple TVs simply rely on the Siri Remote. Their only bypass would be a Bluetooth keyboard.

Besides logging in with ease, Facebook's new tvOS SDK offers the Share to Facebook function so developers can integrate into their apps, which will allow users to share videos, links or photos, on the world's biggest social network. Developers will also benefit from the introduction of Facebook analytics access, a powerful tool for tracking user engagement across multiple platforms.

You can download Facebook's SDK here.

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