My neighbours Apple TV's are showing up in my AirPlay menu.

Hi kula_shakur. As you can read in this thread, Apple devices can now see nearby Apple TVs using Bluetooth. If you turn off Bluetooth on your device, you will no longer see them. If you require Bluetooth, be sure to select your audio device, not the neighbor's Apple TV, from the Control Center. If you have iOS 10, you need to swipe left in Control Center to see the list. If you have an Apple TV, give it a distinctive name, so you (and your neighbors) won't select the wrong one by accident. There's not much else a user can do at this time. You can use this link: https://www.apple.com/feedback/ to report your problems to Apple.

It's not just like connecting to wifi. Similar but not the same.

1. Virtually everyone password protects their WiFi. Virtually no one password protects their AppleTV.
2. Virtually no one EVER renames their AppleTV (unlike WiFi) so when you AirPlay in an apartment building you'll often see three or more "AppleTV" options listed... all the same name just with numbers appended.
3. People typically connect to WiFi to transfer data to/from software services (social media, email etc.) not to broadcast media to a hardware device.
4. Media that people stream to their AppleTV can sometimes be of a personal or private nature.

And I can tell you from experience living in an apartment building that it's VERY easy to accidentally choose the wrong AppleTV from the list because invariably... just as you go to tap on your AppleTV in the list... your neighbor's AppleTV pops up under your finger the split second you go to tap. Every. Time.

Only workaround is to clearly name you own AppleTV and / or disable Bluetooth and / or just make sure you wait a good 5-10 seconds before choosing a device to airplay to to make sure the list is finished refreshing. It truly is a really horrible UX for apartment dwellers.

"Apple devices can now see nearby Apple TVs using Bluetooth"

Great. Why did we need this again? Connecting to ATVs with WiFi worked fine, right? And even if BT helped my device discover the ATV or AirPlay speaker, it still needs WiFi to stream the data—so…what's the point again?

"If you turn off Bluetooth on your device, you will no longer see them."

So I have to disable an almost critical feature in order to resolve the issues I'm having with a completely useless "feature"?

"be sure to select your audio device, not the neighbor's Apple TV"

Well, yea, that's the goal, isn't it? But what about when I'm about to click on my AirPlay speaker and then my neighbor's Apple TV appears under my thumb as I'm moving in to tap it? (Because it takes a few seconds for the automagical discovery to happen.) I've accidentally tried to connect to my neighbor's ATV countless times only to receive an error that the wireless signal is too weak. Perfect! Then why am I being given the option to connect to it?!?!

"You can use this link: https://www.apple.com/feedback/ to report your problems to Apple"

LOL This one is the best joke being told in the discussion! Giving Apple feedback is useless. This is shown by the fact that this thread is almost 3 years old and this link has been posted a few times in it, with undoubtedly at least some people actually submitting this problem to Apple. And nothing has changed. We're still dealing with this absolutely preventable UX problem which was created for who knows what purpose. (See my first point.)

So here's my takeaway from this discussion:

Apple introduced a new "feature" to Apple TV to make it easier for users to connect to the device—this is assuming that connecting to it was a problem in the first place (which probably should've been fixed instead of adding another dependency to the system).

Then they enabled the new feature by default. And didn't add any options to iOS or MacOS related to this.

Now, all of my neighbor's ATVs show up on my AirPlay list even though I've never been on their network, never connected to their TV and never will. And I can't not see them.

So, assuming that my neighbor's life has been enhanced by this useless addition, I'm paying for his enhanced experience with a new pain point in my iPhone and Mac experience. Let's consider this in terms of net UX enhancement in a densely populated apartment building: if one person uses this feature on their Apple TV that's 1 user who's experience is better, while up to 16 users' (hypothetical extreme for argument's sake) experiences have just been diminished.

So Apple introducing a "better" way to connect to the Apple TV actually resulted in 16x decrease in their product's UX. I'd say Apple soiled the bed on this one and obviously has no intentions of doing anything about anytime soon probably because it falls somewhere between "water under the bridge" and "things we might consider looking into sometime in the future" on their priority list.

YES I HAVE THIS MAJOR PROBLEM TOO!!! someone in my building's Apple TV keeps showing up in my system preferences when I'm trying to change sound output and unfortunately I've clicked several times by accident so basically I'm giving them access to my entire computer not cool to be a way to get rid of this thing!!!!

Actually, felt the caps was pretty necessary. Used it to express the emotion of "frustration," not sure why you find that rude. Especially since you weren't even in this conversation.

btw, I've submitted feedback and called apple support on this issue several times. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Why don't you offer a solution instead of picking apart the emotional content of the post. Your response is like something an insane person would say. I am having the same issue and would appreciate a solution, not your personal/emotional problems rearing their ugly heads.

Don't be concerned about expressing the anguish of your soul because of this problem. You are free to express yourself however you need. I see it too and I am wondering why the devices are showing up. Good discussion.

standerson04 wrote:

I am trying to figure out the same thing... seems like there is no way to disable it.

PLEASE APPLE!!!!!! GIVE US A WAY TO TURN THIS PEER-2-PEER **** OFF ON ALL OF OUT DEVICES!!!!

The caps lock is really not necessary. It is rude and difficult to read. The other thing is you are not addressing Apple here. This is a user to user support forum, and no one here could do anything about your issue. If you want to let Apple know you would like to see a feature enhancement, then go to the feedback page at http://www.apple.com/feedback and click on the appropriate subject area.

I am trying to figure out the same thing... seems like there is no way to disable it.

PLEASE APPLE!!!!!! GIVE US A WAY TO TURN THIS PEER-2-PEER **** OFF ON ALL OF OUT DEVICES!!!!

I think there's one big difference in the wifi analogy and that is one doesn't usually switch between wifi networks nearly as often as one might switch between AirPlay devices. While not a huge problem as long as one has distinctive names for one's own AirPlay devices, it still ads some usability friction that could be avoidable by an option to hide all AirPlay capable devices not being on the same network as the currently joined one.

This is peer to peer AirPlay, your neighbours can see your Apple TV and are trying to Airplay to it, either intentionally or in error.

There are two types of password protection for AirPlay.

The first is an on-screen passcode, in which the Apple TV will display a four number password on screen, which you must enter into your mobile device before AirPlay can be enabled. This is typically to ensure that users are in the room where the TV is, before enabling AirPlay. This typically protects against disruptive behaviour from another in another room while someone is trying to use AirPlay

The second is a hidden password password which needs to be remembered by all users who will have access to AirPlay, unless you share this password with others, this method doesn’t lend itself to use by guests.

You can turn either type of protection on or off by navigating to Settings > AirPlay.

SORRY FOR EXPRESSING EMOTION

NOT TRUE!! I TRIED IT. BLUETOOTH & AIRPLAY WITH Apple TV ARE DIFFERENT!!!

The TOS of the forum indicate this is a user to user support forum. Not a place to express frustration. If you know anything about internet usage, you will be aware of the fact that the use of caps is considered an indication of yelling and is rude in a blog or forum.

I have just as much right as anyone else to post in a thread, and since I spend a great deal of time here answering questions, I look at most, if not almost all. I provided you the feedback link as the location for you to express your "frustration".