Google TV: Meet the new smart TV software coming to Sony and TCL TVs this year

Google TV: Run across the new smart Tv software coming to Sony and TCL TVs this year

(Image credit: Sony)

Smart TVs from Sony, TCL, and a handful of other brands are going to look a scrap different in 2021 equally the companies switch from Android Boob tube to Google TV. But why the modify? What's unlike about the new Google-branded platform?

While Sony's smart TVs are the near visible to make the switch, they won't exist the just ones. Other Android TV manufacturers are also shifting to the newer Google TV platform, as Google updates all of its Idiot box software offerings.

So what is Google Boob tube, and why would yous want it on your smart TV?

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What is Google TV?

Google Telly is the newest version of Google's smart Television receiver platform, previously known every bit Android Tv. In some ways, the motion to Google TV is simply rebranding, since the underlying Android software is even so what makes everything work.

Google TV logo

(Epitome credit: Google)

That said, in that location are several changes that come with the new Google Television receiver name that are more than than pare deep. With updates to the look and feel of basic interface elements, like the homescreen, and improved advice between TVs, smartphones and other devices, Google Television receiver may feel like a big alter from what y'all were used to with Android TV.

And if you lot're thinking "Haven't I heard of Google TV before?" you're right. Google TV was the name of Google'due south first foray into smart TVs and set-top boxes back in 2010. (Think the Logitech Revue?) Everything quondam is new again.

Why the change?

Google has had a hand in the smart Television receiver and streaming worlds for years, with Android, Chromecast, YouTube and Television receiver and movie content on the Google Play store. But these dissimilar pieces of software and hardware accept never been a cohesive whole. In the early days of streaming and smart TVs, that fabricated sense, and Google had room to effort different things and experiment. But today's TV landscape is far more than established, and Google Goggle box is part of a push to consolidate these disparate experiences into something more cohesive, equally the streaming world has gone mainstream.

Google TV unites several of these elements. It's the main interface for new Chromecast devices and now smart TVs. You lot can add things to your watchlist from your phone, share content betwixt devices more than easily, and go a more than personalized experience. And by integrating more tightly with Google'due south own paid alive Telly service, YouTube Tv, Google's looking to improve establish itself as the complete solution for modern TV viewing.

Over the next couple of years, you tin look everything Android to shift to Google Television, whether it's smart TVs, set-top boxes or streaming sticks.

What's dissimilar from Android Tv?

While the move to Google TV is as much a name-modify as anything else, there are several experiential and functional changes fabricated to Google TV that make information technology different than any version of Android Goggle box that came before. The biggest changes accept to do with user interaction, search and sharing information between devices.

We had our first real look at the interface with the Chromecast with Google TV review. The main interface has been cleaned up a flake, with dedicated tabs for alive TV and a "For Y'all" tab that puts all of your recommendations in one spot. Other tabs provide quick access to movies, shows, apps and your library of purchased and rented content.

The home screen has also been changed to prioritize content recommendations from your preferred streaming services. Hopefully that means more suggestions of shows you desire to lookout man, and fewer ads for services you might not want to pay for.

You'll also get more than curated suggestions for alive Boob tube offerings, whether information technology's over-the-air programming or a live TV service like YouTube TV.

Google TV Watchlist — (Image credit: Google)

In that location'southward also a new "Watchlist" that lets you bookmark shows from various apps to scout subsequently. This is a persistent listing that syncs across dissimilar devices, so you tin can add together titles to it on your telephone, your web browser, and whatsoever other device that lets you log into your Google business relationship.

Google Assistant takes center phase every bit vocalisation interaction gets meliorate support. On TVs with far-field microphones (which includes several Sony TVs), that ways that y'all'll be able to employ voice search easily-costless, and using your Google-powered smart Idiot box much like a Google Habitation smart speaker.

It also has improved integration with all of your smart home devices. If it works with Google Home, it volition work with your TV, every bit well. And if yous have a device with a camera feed, like one of the best video doorbells, you can view that feed onscreen.

What are the benefits to Google TV?

All of the things we love almost Android Television receiver will however be at that place on Google Goggle box, including the Google Play shop and its 5,000+ apps. That includes all of the major streaming services, similar Netflix, Apple Television set, Disney Plus and HBO Max.

Search should be predictably nifty – it is Google, after all – with intuitive voice search that volition pull upwardly shows and movies easily, or spring to a full web search when needed.

Google TV adds support for multiple user accounts, meaning that you can have your ain tailored experience on the aforementioned smart Idiot box the rest of the family unit uses. In the words of our ain Mike Prospero, "I won't become recommendations for Gilmore Girls, and she won't get the Fast & Furious franchise popping upward on her screen."

Google TV Kids Profile

(Image credit: Google)

There'south also Kids Profiles, which lets y'all set up a kid-friendly account on the TV. In that profile, you lot can personalize things for your family and continue out apps and recommendations that might not exist appropriate for younger users. Information technology even lets you set specific amounts of TV watching time and have it shut off at the designated bedtime.

1 boosted bonus: Google TV will reportedly take a "Basic TV" fashion that effectively turns your gear up into a dumb Television set. It turns off all of the connected stuff that's required for smart Goggle box apply — like an internet connexion for streaming, tracking for content recommendations and ads, and (because the web connection is severed) disables Google Banana. All you're left with will exist alive Television set via a TV antenna or cable, and external devices, similar media players and game consoles that connect via HDMI. Fifty-fifty the dwelling screen is mostly removed, giving you about equally bones a Telly experience as yous'll get on whatever mod TV.

Is there anything bad well-nigh Google TV?

Well, we haven't had much chance to utilise the new Google TV software, so there's a lot we don't know notwithstanding. Chromecast users have reported a few bugs, like apps not launching properly and search being a petty clunky, simply we'll accept to run across if that's still the case when the offset Google TV smart TVs come in for testing.

Bated from that, the biggest trouble with this Google TV change might but be that it's confusing. The new Google TV isn't the old Google Television receiver, and it'due south replacing Android Television receiver while still pretty much being Android Idiot box in everything only proper noun and logo. In a production category that'south so filled with jargon and branded features and inscrutable spec lists, simpler is commonly better.

The expert news? That seems to be Google's ultimate aim with the Android to Google Boob tube change – a simpler, more cohesive approach to Goggle box and streaming. It only might accept a couple of years before everything is on the aforementioned page.

Is Android Television set still effectually?

The respond is "Sort of." Technically speaking, Google Tv set is built on Android Television's foundation, so Google TV is as much a rebranding as annihilation else. In that sense, Android Tv set isn't really going anywhere.

Older Android TVs – those using Android 9.0 or earlier – will still use Android TV in more or less the aforementioned mode they always have. Some more recent Android sets, from 2019 and 2020, however, may go upgraded to a slightly different version of Android, one designed to look and feel more similar Google TV.

It's mostly simply a question of whether your TV is going to go updated to a fresher looking version of Android. Some manufacturers will be quick to button out updates, others may never even get around to it. If y'all've got an older Android-based smart TV or Android Boob tube streaming stick, you tin can disable automatic updates to keep the new interface from showing upward.

Brian Westover is an Editor at Tom'due south Guide, covering everything from TVs to the latest PCs. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he wrote for TopTenReviews and PCMag.