After launching in October of final 12 months, Google TV is lastly getting considered one of its most requested options: multi-user profile help.
Google TV is a revamp and rebranding of Google’s Android TV OS—it is Android, however tweaked for televisions with a big-screen UI. At the moment, there are nonetheless some Android TV bins in the marketplace, however Google reportedly plans to part out the “Android TV” model by 2022, in favor of utilizing Google TV branding all over the place. Google TV is the following model of Android TV
Google TV’s flagship characteristic is the brand new residence display, which is designed round a content-recommendation engine. As an alternative of the standard grid of streaming app icons, Google TV shows the reveals themselves on the house display, prioritizing what issues—the content material—and deprioritizing which service it comes from. The issue with Google TV’s suggestion method is that the system has gone a full 12 months with out profile help, so each consumer of the TV impacts the one listing of advisable content material.
With multi-user help, Google TV’s residence display will lastly make sense. A child’s streaming of Sesame Avenue will not battle with an grownup’s streaming of Squid Sport. Customers will get their very own suggestions. Multi-user help additionally implies that the Google TV watch listing will now be tracked for particular person customers. As well as, profiles will get entry to their private Google account information by way of the Google Assistant, so you’ll be able to ask issues like “present me my calendar” and get a related outcome.
With profile help, Google TV’s ambient mode, which reveals up whereas the TV is idle, can be being upgraded with extra personalised data. Google says, “From the most recent sport rating to the climate, information, and extra, your TV will maintain you updated with data based mostly in your profile. You possibly can even scroll by the on-screen shortcuts to leap into your images or begin enjoying your music and podcasts with only a click on.”
The ambient mode is US-only for now, however Google says help for profiles will roll out globally to Google TV gadgets from Sony, TCL, and the brand new Google Chromecast quickly.
