Even though they didn’t really talk about it too much during the keynote, Google made sure to show Android TV some love. Just like everything else running Android, it too is getting updated to Android O.
For starters, they made sure to refresh its homepage w/ a more aesthetically pleasing UI. They made pretty much every app look like a channel on a guide page w/ a welcoming design. This makes gives every app the ability to show off live previews when you go to the right of the screen. So think more so of a mesh between the Amazon’s Fire TV & the Xbox One.
Next up, you have the power of Google Assistant built within. With the new feature, you can search for shows/movies, actors within it, contextual questions, and more. Now that their Assistant is getting a bit more robust, the timing of this feature coming to Android TV is kind of perfect.
Then, you have the Watch Now queue which is the equivalent to the Keep Watching list on Netflix. You can save any show or movie to it just by long-pressing the media’s icon. And lastly, the YouTube app on Android TV now supports 360-degree videos. Allowing you to click different places on the screen to pan around the entire video.
Just like everything else Android, the TV side of things will get the Android O update around the same time of later this year. So who’s looking to give Android TV another shot after hearing this?
