Posted By Paul Kafasis on September 30th, 2017

Earlier this week, we shipped Airfoil for Windows version 5.2, which enables it to once again send audio directly to all versions of the Apple TV. That includes the newer Apple TVs running tvOS 10 and 11, as well as Apple TV 3 and below. All security modes are now supported with this free update, so users streaming to any Apple TV should be sure to grab the latest.

Further Updates in the Pipeline

In recent months, Airfoil for Windows has not been updated as much as we would have liked. When we began work on Chromecast compatibility last year, we announced that we hoped to ship it in short order. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out that way. Among other issues, the Apple TV 10.2 update forced us to shift our focus to restoring functionality, rather than implementing new features. We’ve heard from users who are eager to stream to Chromecast with Airfoil for Windows, and we continue to work hard to accomplish this. Progress has been slow, but steady.

Having missed one estimate for release already, I won’t make the mistake of giving another. Instead, I’ll just state that we now have Chromecast streaming working in Airfoil for Windows here, and we’re currently conducting extensive testing. It will likely still be some time before it ships, but we’re back to work on this now that Apple TV compatibility has been handled.

We’re also hard at work on improving issues with audio capture from Windows Store applications. Because Windows Store apps are written in a very different way from other applications, there have been issues capturing their audio. We’ve been striving to make Airfoil compatible with as many Windows Store apps as possible, but further work remains to be done.

We’ll be continuing to plug away on both of the above items, and shipping additional updates as soon as possible. For now, just grab the latest Airfoil for Windows, and stay tuned for more.

Notes on Airfoil Satellite TV

The Airfoil Satellite TV app we released back in April was a useful workaround for streaming audio to the new Apple TVs. Now that we’ve worked around Apple’s changes, you can once again stream audio to the Apple TV without needing any additional software. As such, Airfoil Satellite TV generally shouldn’t be necessary at this time.

In the future, we may update Airfoil Satellite TV so it better matches the iOS version of Airfoil Satellite. If nothing else, however, Airfoil Satellite TV will continue to exist as a fall-back, so that even if Apple changes or breaks AirPlay compatibility, Airfoil will still be able to send audio from a PC or Mac to the Apple TV.

A Small Airfoil for Mac Update, Too

We also updated Airfoil for Mac to version 5.6.4 this week. Apple TV support was restored with Airfoil for Mac version 5.6, and this new version has some additional improvements made while working on Airfoil for Windows, including updates for tvOS 11. If you’re also using Airfoil for Mac, be sure to get the latest by selecting “Check for Update” from the Airfoil menu.