Android TV is currently an unfinished operating system for a broken set-top box. We wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole as of now. But it looks like Google’s planning to introduce an intriguing new feature: the ability to watch live television.
Google just published a new app to the Play Store called “Live Channels for Android TV,” and while you can’t actually download it to a Nexus Player right now, the app claims it will allow you to watch all your favourite live programming. You’ll be able to pull it down from the internet or use a bonafide TV tuner, according to the app description.
Since the Nexus Player doesn’t have a built-in tuner and your typical cord-cutting set-top-boxes rarely do, that points to Android TV likely becoming the operating system for some actual televisions sooner or later. And when it does, it looks like this app could be pretty handy, giving you information about what you’re watching, change your settings, or even watch the game picture-in-picture while you do something else in the background. Colour us intrigued.
But we don’t know when this app might actually be available. It claims to already be “installed” on my Nexus Player, but I just checked and it definitely isn’t there. “No plans to announce just yet, but stay tuned for more!” says a Google rep. [Google Play via The Next Web, Android Police]