Google makes a comeback in the living room with Android TV

After success with the Chromecast, Google takes video a step further.

Casey Johnston – Jun 25, 2014 12:33 pm | 64

Google unveiled a new iteration of its smart TV platform, Android TV, at the opening keynote of its Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco. While the platform is still a theoretical implementation more than a concrete product, Google is flexible about whether it can be used for a smart TV, a set-top box, or another format entirely.

Like the other forms of Android, Android TV will be able to operate off the same SDK as the rest of the Android OS formats. As part of the Android L developer preview, Google demonstrated some Android TV features using an app to control a TV display.

Users don’t want or expect complexity from their TV, Google asserted in its presentation. Search is built in to the platform with Google Now, allowing users to dictate to their phones a search term that will turn up both results for watching content as well as information—for instance, a search for Breaking Bad returns both a Google Play store link as well as a cast list. The search also works dynamically, so that a search for “movies from 2002” will return a list of relevant items.

Controlling the Android TV with Android Wear.

The platform has a set of applications, including Netflix and YouTube, as well as Google’s own content marketplaces and video collections. The Android TV interface can also run games and interact with a game pad. During the presentation Google showed users playing a multiplayer game with one user on a tablet and the other using a TV and controller.

In addition to interacting with the TV by smartphone, Google also showed some limited interactions with an Android Wear watch.

Google did not have concrete hardware plans to bring Android TV to the world, but stated it’s working with a number of manufacturers on both streaming devices and TVs. Google stated that it’s working with silicon manufacturers including Marvell and Intel to create devices. Sony, Sharp, and TPvision will be making Android TV-powered TVs, while streaming boxes will be coming from companies including Razr, Asus, and LG.

Playing a mobile game on the Android TV platform.

After the initial failure of the smart TV platform Google TV, Google finally enjoyed some success over the last year with its streaming dongle, the Chromecast. Though a far cry from a smart TV platform, the $35 stick allows users to “cast” videos from their devices to any screen with an HDMI port, including content from Netflix, YouTube, and even browser tabs.

Aside from Android TV, Google also revealed that it is enabling its Chromecast streaming sticks to be able to stream video from devices even when they are not on the same WiFi network. In theory, this will allow users to, for instance, share videos to their friends’ TVs from down the street or from different states. All Android users will have access to the distributed Chromecast platform later this year, Google said.

Another new feature of Chromecast will allow it to passively broadcast photos to TVs from nearby devices, rather than let the TV stand idle. Users can also use broader collections of photos chosen by theme to display on their TVs via Chromecast.

The new Android TV arrives a year after the smart TV market has grown a little more crowded. At the last CES, Roku unveiled its own line of branded TVs with partners TCL and Hisense. LG is pushing webOS on its own sets, and Samsung continues to iterate on its own smart TV platform.

A developer kit called ADT One will be made available starting today, and developers can get more information on the platform at developer.android.com/tv.

Google I/O is still in progress, and we will update this article as more details become available. For up-to-the-minute information, you can follow our liveblog.