The technology behind Android TV: how Google wants to reinvent apps for the living room
Android TV won’t be another device, but rather a platform that manufacturers of TVs and set-top boxes can use to bring streaming services to the television.
Google’s end goal: making apps accessible
There are some obvious usability advantages to that approach, as it would for example allow consumers to use a remote control in the same way within each app, and expect each app to behave the same way. Deploying new features to each app would also be easier.
But the biggest advantage is that it gives Google access to information about the content offered within each app. Google has long pushed to break open apps and make their content searchable. The company recently introduced in-app search for Android, giving consumers a way to find content from apps installed on their phone through mobile search, and this new app model would help to build smarter universal search for the TV as well.
Google's in-app search for mobile apps.
Android TV, which Google had apparently described as “an entertainment interface, not a computing platform.” The new platform would be based on Android, the Verge reported, and developers would be encouraged to build “extremely simple TV apps for an extremely simple set-top-box interface.”
