Posted by Shobana Radhakrishnan – Senior Director of Engineering, Google TV, and Paul Lammertsma – Developer Relations Engineer, Android
Over the previous yr, Google TV and Android TV achieved over 270 million month-to-month energetic gadgets, establishing one of many largest sensible TV OS footprints. Constructing on this momentum, we’re excited to share new platform options and developer instruments designed that can assist you enhance app engagement with our increasing consumer base.
Google TV with Gemini capabilities
Earlier this yr, we introduced that we’ll carry Gemini capabilities to Google TV, so customers can communicate extra naturally and conversationally to seek out what to observe and get solutions to advanced questions.
After every film or present search, our new voice assistant will counsel related content material out of your apps, considerably rising the discoverability of your content material.
Plus, customers can simply ask questions on subjects they’re interested in and obtain insightful solutions with supporting movies.
We’re so excited to carry this beneficial and pleasant expertise to customers this fall.
Video Discovery API
Right this moment, we’ve additionally opened companion enrollment for our Video Discovery API.
Video Discovery optimizes Resumption, Entitlements, and Suggestions throughout all Google TV kind components to boost the end-user expertise and increase app engagement.
- Resumption: Companions can now simply show a consumer’s paused video inside the ‘Proceed Watching’ row from the house display screen. This row is a first-rate location that drives 60% of all consumer interactions on Google TV.
- Entitlements: Video Discovery streamlines entitlement administration, which matches app content material to consumer eligibility. Customers recognize this as a result of they will get pleasure from personalised suggestions while not having to manually replace all their subscription particulars. This enables companions to attach with customers throughout a number of discovery factors on Google TV.
- Suggestions: Video Discovery even highlights personalised content material suggestions based mostly on content material that customers watched inside apps.
Companions can start incorporating the Video Discovery API in the present day, beginning with resumption and entitlement integrations. Try g.co/television/vda to be taught extra.
Jetpack Compose for TV
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Final yr, we launched Compose for TV 1.0 beta, which helps you to construct lovely, adaptive UIs throughout Android, together with Android TV OS.
Now, Compose for TV 1.0 is secure, and expands on the core and Materials Compose libraries. We’ve even seen how the most recent launch of Compose considerably improves app startup inside our inner benchmarking cellular pattern, with roughly a 20% enchancment in contrast with the March 2024 launch. As a result of Compose for TV builds upon these libraries, apps constructed with Compose for TV also needs to see higher app startup occasions.
New to constructing with Compose, and undecided the place to begin? Our up to date Jetcaster audio streaming app pattern demonstrates methods to use Compose throughout kind components. It features a devoted module for enjoying podcasts on TV by combining separate view fashions with shared enterprise logic.
Focus Administration Codelab
We perceive that focus administration might be difficult at occasions. That’s why we’ve printed a codelab that opinions methods to set preliminary focus, put together for surprising focus traversal, and effectively restore focus.
Reminiscence Optimization Information
We’ve launched a complete information on reminiscence optimization, together with reminiscence targets for low RAM gadgets as effectively. Mixed with Android Studio’s highly effective reminiscence profiler, this helps you perceive when your app exceeds these limits and why.
In-App Scores and Opinions
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Furthermore, app scores and opinions are important for builders, providing quantitative and qualitative suggestions on consumer experiences. Now, we’re extending the In-App Scores and Opinions API to TV to permit builders to immediate customers for scores and opinions instantly from Google TV. Try our current weblog put up detailing methods to simply combine the In-App Scores and Opinions API.
Android 16 for TV
We’re excited to announce the upcoming launch of Android 16 for TV. Builders can start utilizing the most recent beta in the present day. With Android 16, TV builders can entry a number of nice options:
- Platform assist for the Eclipsa Audio codec allows creators to make use of the IAMF spatial audio format. For ExoPlayer assist that features earlier platform variations, see ExoPlayer’s IAMF decoder module.
- There are numerous enhancements to media playback velocity, consistency and effectivity, in addition to HDMI-CEC reliability and efficiency optimizations for 64-bit kernels.
- Extra APIs and consumer experiences from Android 16 are additionally out there. We invite you to discover the whole record from the Android 16 for TV launch notes.
What’s subsequent
We’re extremely excited to see how these bulletins will optimize your growth journey, and stay up for seeing the unbelievable apps you may launch on the platform!
Discover this announcement and all Google I/O 2025 updates on io.google beginning Might 22.