A new Google TV update should make Google’s TV platform more useful for everyone in your home.
The update is rolling out today, and the biggest change you’ll see is the addition of profiles, which will allow everyone in your family to add their own accounts in order to get more personalised content recommendations, access to their individual watch lists, and more tailored responses from the Google Assistant. As you might expect, because your Google TV profile is linked to your Google account, your apps and login details will be automatically imported, so you don’t have to manually enter all your credentials one by one.
When you’re not watching TV, the addition of cards to Google TV’s ambient mode, which appears after your TV is idle for a few minutes, should make it easier to keep tabs on the weather, news, sports, and more. Info will be presented via a card-based UI, allowing you to scroll through different cards using your remote. If you want, you can launch into podcasts, music, and pics from your Google Photos library directly from the Google TV ambient screen without needing to dive into Google TV itself.
And in addition to the new virtual remote feature that’s coming soon to the Google Home app — you know, in case you lose your physical remote or it runs out of batteries — Google is also adding support for Philo to Google TV’s integrated live TV tab, which allows you to browse currently airing programs from the main Google TV UI without needing to open the Philo app itself.
With the addition of Philo, Google TV now supports three different over-the-top live services in its Live TV tab, with YouTube TV having gotten support at launch followed by the addition of Sling TV integration earlier this year.