tvOS Focus Halo Does Not Respect cornerRadius on UIImageView

The Problem

When using adjustsImageWhenAncestorFocused = true on a UIImageView in tvOS, the native focus halo effect does not respect the cornerRadius property set on the image view's layer.

The image itself correctly clips to the rounded corners, but the focus halo (the glowing outline that appears when the view is focused) always renders with square or nearly-square corners.

Code Example

let imageView = UIImageView()
imageView.layer.cornerRadius = 60
imageView.clipsToBounds = true
imageView.adjustsImageWhenAncestorFocused = true
imageView.image = posterImage

Result: The poster image displays with 60pt rounded corners as expected, but when focused, the halo effect has square corners - creating an obvious visual mismatch.

Expected Behavior

The focus halo should follow the same cornerRadius as the UIImageView. If I set a 60pt corner radius, both the image and its focus halo should have matching 60pt rounded corners.

Actual Behavior

  • The image respects cornerRadius and displays with rounded corners
  • The focus halo ignores cornerRadius and renders with square corners
  • This creates an inconsistent, unpolished appearance

Environment

  • tvOS 16.0+ (tested through tvOS 18)
  • Affects both Apple TV Simulator and physical devices
  • Occurs with any corner radius value above approximately 20-30pt

Use Case

This is a common scenario for media streaming apps. Movie and TV show poster cards typically use rounded corners (40-80pt) as part of modern UI design. Many apps like Netflix, Plex, and others use this design pattern.

The current behavior forces developers to choose between:

  1. Using the beautiful native focus effect but with mismatched square halos
  2. Implementing a completely custom focus effect from scratch, losing the native parallax, shadow, and halo animations

Neither option is ideal.

What I've Tried

  • Setting cornerRadius before and after adjustsImageWhenAncestorFocused
  • Different clipsToBounds configurations
  • Wrapping the image view in a container view with corner radius
  • Using layer.maskedCorners to specify which corners to round
  • Subclassing CALayer to intercept sublayers added by the focus system

None of these approaches affect the focus halo's corner radius.

Request

I would appreciate guidance on any of the following:

  1. Is there a supported way to customize the focus halo's corner radius? The UIFocusHaloEffect class exists on iOS/iPadOS but is not available on tvOS.

  2. Is this a bug that will be addressed? The focus system clearly reads some properties from the image view (like bounds), so it seems like cornerRadius should also be respected.

  3. Is there a different API I should be using? Perhaps there's an alternative approach to achieve rounded corner poster cards with matching focus effects that I'm not aware of.

Additional Context

I've noticed that some third-party apps have achieved this effect, suggesting it may be possible through undocumented means. However, I would prefer to use a public, supported API to ensure compatibility with future tvOS updates.

Any guidance from Apple engineers or developers who have solved this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

tvOS Focus Halo Does Not Respect cornerRadius on UIImageView
 
 
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