Apple won’t allow webviews in tvOS and that’s a good thing

Developer Daniel Pasco explained in a blog post that Apple’s upcoming tvOS — which will power the new Apple TV — doesn’t support webviews, which means apps for the device won’t be able to display Web content.

This makes it a lot harder for developers to build in features like browsing websites, opening links from apps like Twitter or RSS readers, or displaying frequently updated information, such as sports scores.

While that sounds like programming hell, it could be a good thing for users: Restricting the use of webviews means that developers will have to build native components that are optimized for tvOS, render well on large screens and are easy to navigate.

Pasco adds that this limitation potentially eliminates Web exploits, which increases security and privacy for Apple TV users.

Yes, this makes it harder for developers to get their apps with all their functionality intact on Apple’s new OS, but the trade-off — a better and safer experience for users — sounds well worth it.