Roku is phasing out Photo Streams and sending sleepy screens to Roku City, redefining how its TVs and players handle screensavers. The company has been slowly rolling out Backdrops, the new home screen for viewing personal photos and curated art, and later this quarter, unused sessions will increasingly land on a billboard-friendly Roku City skyline.
What’s New for Roku Screensavers and Idle Mode
Photo Streams has for years served double duty as a simple digital picture frame, allowing users to turn idle time into a carousel of family and travel pictures. That experience is now being consolidated, Roku says. Photo Streams will no longer work as a screensaver; rather, it will prompt users to open Backdrops for their photos. Meanwhile, the de facto idle state across Roku devices is becoming Roku City, the animated purple metropolis that has transformed into a high-impact showcase for brands and content promotions.
Personal photos are not going away completely. Backdrops will live inside, but there are some big restrictions: only a single gallery can be shown at any given time, and it needs to be triggered consciously. In other words, if you want your own pictures to take over, you’ll open Backdrops yourself, rather than waiting around for them to happen when the device slips into idle mode.
Backdrops Features and Limits for Photos and Art
Backdrops aims to take the sting out of losing a set-it-and-forget-it photo screensaver, though, with an extensive art archive that Roku says should number around 4,500 images, including classics and more current imagery. Early collections feature works of Johannes Vermeer, Paul Gauguin, Leonardo da Vinci, and Mary Cassatt, as well as nature, architecture, and cityscape photography.
Backdrops also provides a couple of basic controls that were not included in Photo Streams, such as the ability to control how long an image is displayed and a quick-launch pathway using the power button on your Roku remote.
That said, it’s an app experience, not a systemwide screensaver. If you treasured that always-on, totally automated rotation of personal albums, Backdrops will be more manual and less ambient by default.
Why Roku Is Directing Everyone to Roku City
Roku frames the move as simplification and greater future flexibility, but like a lot of moves these days it fits snugly into Roku’s advertising-first approach. Platform revenue that stems largely from advertising, content distribution, and services also makes up well more than 80% of total revenue, despite hardware sales. The longer screens are parked in Roku City, the more opportunities there are for Roku to load up promotional messages, partnerships, and branded moments.
Roku City has turned into a pop-culture touchstone and a marketing chalkboard. Trade publications like Variety and Ad Age have recorded brand integrations stitched into the skyline, from blockbuster tie-ins to consumer products nestled among its neon towers. Consolidating the chutes of the screensaver funnel into Roku City broadens the reach of those placements and enables tighter reins on the idle screen experience across its tens of millions of active accounts.
How It Affects Households Using Roku Devices
It adds friction for households that had been using their living room TV as a passive digital photo frame. Personal photos will no longer be an option when your Roku device is idling; you’ll have to open Backdrops or start a slideshow from casting. But it’s possible some users may appreciate having more control over when their personal photos are on, such as in shared spaces or during privacy-sensitive events.
The change also highlights where living-room platforms are going. The Fire TV Ambient Experience is Amazon’s blend of art, widgets, and advertising. The Aerial screensavers and Memories on Apple TV are closely connected to iCloud Photos. Google Photos has a prominent presence on Google TV. Roku’s default leans more heavily now on Roku City as the idle home, with Backdrops filling in the art-and-photos void without replacing the primary screensaver.
What Users Can Do Today to Prepare for Changes
- Set expectations and migrate your photos.
- If you only used Photo Streams, open Backdrops and download your favorites to an album.
- Discover the reference albums to complement personal collections, and adjust display timing to fit your space.
- If you need quick access, get in the habit of opening Backdrops instead of waiting for a background switch-over.
For a more traditional slideshow, think casting. You can mirror from a phone, use the media tab on the Roku mobile app, or enable AirPlay 2 on supported models. These are not as smooth as having your own digital frame, but they move the digital frame experience into position when you need it.
Be sure to keep an eye on Roku Support and product announcements as the transition unfolds. The company says that users will be greeted by prompts regarding Photo Streams shifting to ‘Backdrops,’ and that Photo Streams will eventually only show a message directing them to open Backdrops. You should think of Roku City as the one-size-fits-all idle background, and imagine Backdrops as the on-demand avenue for personal photos and chosen artwork.
The upshot: Roku is concentrating screensavers around Roku City to make the most of a highly visible surface, while Backdrops takes up the slack for photography and art. It’s a clear indication of where the platform’s interests lie — and how, in the big screen world, ambient couture alchemizes into commercial.
