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tvOS, desktop(Mac, Linux, Win) and watchLS support #6829
Description
Hello. Such theme about NS is not new, however it’s still needed and no real solution for this yet.
Firstly, it’s tvOS support. Apple TV is a quite popular device and it shares basics with iOS, only difference is how UI is written - TVML. In my opinion, there should be less difficulty to implement current NS’es xml UI system into TVML(which is basically xml). Other code basis is mostly same with iOS, which is supported already. Only real problem I see is supporting apple tv remote, which is not just a D control, but a touch one. Hope you’ll think about tvOS support which will become one more reason for me to fully swtich to nativescript development.
Other thing is desktop platforms. They do differentiate a lot, but on other side the nativity of UI on desktop is not such a big deal as users mostly will use mouse for interactions with it. Code basis is a lot difference in native things. For win as I know you are already developing solution, for macOS it’s also nearly same libs as for iOS and Linux and macOS also has similarities due to macOS being customized unix.
Laslty, the newest of all apple oses - watchOS. Again we are facing same thing - similarities to how iOS apps are written. And user interactions are also using touch gestures, so I think watchOS is the closest to iOS.
Hope to see those platforms in future roadmaps and nativescript will finally rule the world(kidding, just rule all platforms.
P.S. I didn’t write about it, but as a developer of cross platform app solutions there are also some really interesting platfroms for me like webOS, tizen which are smart tvs oses for LG and Samsung and their frameworks are based on web.
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matthew-dean commentedon May 27, 2019
I would also add it would be great to see NativeScript's thoughts / plans on supporting distributions to other TV app platforms like Xbox, PS4, and other TV OS's. webOS and Tizen are good call-outs.
So I would say some kind of feature roadmap for TV apps in general would be amazing. And there's also very little competition in that space, so often companies are going to expensive third-party, closed-source systems to deliver cross-platform TV apps.
shirakaba commentedon Jan 1, 2021
Happened to find this issue while searching for something else, so thought I'd write up the current state of play.
Of interest, six years ago, Jason Zhekov (@jasssonpet) actually made a proof-of-concept of running NativeScript on tvOS:
https://github.com/NativeScript/sample-tvOS
https://www.nativescript.org/blog/running-the-nativescript-runtime-for-ios-on-apple-tv
And with UIKit for macOS, there's theoretically a path for running NativeScript on macOS, too.
Back in 2015, a proof-of-concept partial Windows runtime (without UI components) was also made:
https://github.com/NativeScript/windows-runtime
No prior art on a direct Linux runtime, however.
Kamen Bundev (@bundyo) has also made proofs-of-concept for NativeScript Desktop (using Node.js as the JS runtime, and Qt as the UI runtime), which targeted macOS, Windows, and Linux. He's also made NativeScript for Web.
But ultimately, Progress's regular developer surveys never showed significant interest in platforms other than iOS and Android. As creating a whole new platform is a huge undertaking as a single-person effort, it's something that can only realistically get off the ground with community engagement and momentum through teamwork.
NativeScript is moving towards co-existing with Ionic, which should span a few platforms with less maintenance burden.
NathanWalker commentedon Oct 23, 2026
Duplicate of #27
Desktop support is tracked in #27 (Windows work is in progress in #11272), and tvOS in #3253, with runtime support in review at NativeScript/ios#476. Closing this combined request in favor of those.