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 lively gadgets, establishing one of many largest good TV OS footprints. Constructing on this momentum, we’re excited to share new platform options and developer instruments designed that will help you improve app engagement with our increasing person 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 search out what to look at 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 by and obtain insightful solutions with supporting movies.

We’re so excited to carry this useful and pleasant expertise to customers this fall.

Video Discovery API

At this time, we’ve additionally opened associate enrollment for our Video Discovery API.

Video Discovery optimizes Resumption, Entitlements, and Suggestions throughout all Google TV kind elements to reinforce the end-user expertise and enhance app engagement.

• Resumption: Companions can now simply show a person’s paused video inside the ‘Proceed Watching’ row from the house display screen. This row is a primary location that drives 60% of all person interactions on Google TV.
• Entitlements: Video Discovery streamlines entitlement administration, which matches app content material to person eligibility. Customers admire this as a result of they will get pleasure from customized suggestions without 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 customized content material suggestions primarily based on content material that customers watched inside apps.

Companions can start incorporating the Video Discovery API immediately, beginning with resumption and entitlement integrations. Take a look at g.co/television/vda to be taught extra.

Jetpack Compose for TV

Final yr, we launched Compose for TV 1.0 beta, which helps you to construct stunning, adaptive UIs throughout Android, together with Android TV OS.

Now, Compose for TV 1.0 is steady, and expands on the core and Materials Compose libraries. We’ve even seen how the newest launch of Compose considerably improves app startup inside our inside 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 instances.

New to constructing with Compose, and undecided the place to begin? Our up to date Jetcaster audio streaming app pattern demonstrates easy methods to use Compose throughout kind elements. It features a devoted module for taking part in podcasts on TV by combining separate view fashions with shared enterprise logic.

Focus Administration Codelab

We perceive that focus administration could be difficult at instances. That’s why we’ve revealed a codelab that critiques easy 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 nicely. 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 Critiques

Furthermore, app rankings and critiques are important for builders, providing quantitative and qualitative suggestions on person experiences. Now, we’re extending the In-App Scores and Critiques API to TV to permit builders to immediate customers for rankings and critiques immediately from Google TV. Take a look at our current weblog put up detailing easy methods to simply combine the In-App Scores and Critiques API.

Android 16 for TV

We’re excited to announce the upcoming launch of Android 16 for TV. Builders can start utilizing the newest beta immediately. With Android 16, TV builders can entry a number of nice options:

• Platform assist for the Eclipsa Audio codec permits 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 person experiences from Android 16 are additionally accessible. We invite you to discover the entire listing 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 sit up for seeing the incredible apps you may launch on the platform!

Discover this announcement and all Google I/O 2025 updates on io.google beginning Could 22.