Why Zapline exists

There is no shortage of IPTV players. There is a shortage of ones that treat watching television as the point.

The problem

If you use a playlist from a provider, you have probably been through three or four apps already. The pattern repeats:

The best players are not on Apple devices

The apps people rave about in IPTV communities are overwhelmingly Android ones, built for set-top boxes and sideloaded sticks. Arrive on an iPhone or an Apple TV and the shortlist gets a lot thinner, and a lot older.

You pay again for every screen

It is normal in this category to buy the phone app, then buy the TV app, then find the Mac is not supported at all. Some charge every year for a player that talks only to your own provider's server and costs nothing to run.

The guide is an afterthought

Most players show a scrolling list of channel names. Actual television has a schedule: what is on now, what is next, what you missed. When the guide is bolted on at the end it shows one line of text if you are lucky, and nothing if your provider's channel IDs are untidy.

They do not feel like Apple apps

Cross-platform ports drag their conventions with them. Menus that ignore the Siri Remote, layouts that assume a mouse, a Mac version that is an enlarged iPad screen. Picture in Picture, AirPlay and proper focus handling get skipped because they are per-platform work.

Someone is always paying

Players given away for nothing tend to fund themselves with ads, trackers, or an account you did not want. A player is a local tool; it has no business reporting what you watch to anyone.

What we decided instead

• One app for every Apple screen. iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac, built natively for each rather than one layout stretched four ways.
• The guide is the product. A real schedule grid with on-now and up-next, and past programmes playable straight from it wherever your provider keeps an archive.
• Nothing taken in exchange. No ads, no analytics, no accounts, no servers of ours. Your playlists and history stay on your device.
• It behaves like a television. Channel up and down from the player, favourites, continue watching, a PIN over the groups you would rather the household did not find.

What Zapline will never do

• Bundle channels, or point you at any. It plays playlists you already have. It will never ship a list, suggest a provider, or link to one.
• Collect anything. There is no backend to collect it into.
• Show you an advert. Whatever Zapline costs, it will never be funded by your attention or your data.

What it does not do yet

Being straight about the gaps, since every other page here is a pitch. Zapline does not record programmes, does not show several channels at once, and does not sync your library between your devices — each one keeps its own. Those are on the list, not in the app.