- The Google TV home screen will receive a “personalized feed of videos to snack”
- New generative AI features arrive today on TCL Gemini compatible TVs
- Improvements in Google Photos and screensavers
Google TV is getting an update (as is) that many people won’t like. This summer, it will bring vertical videos to the home screens of US viewers in the form of short YouTube clips.
According to FlatpanelsHD, things could get worse: Google does not rule out also adding vertical videos from TikTok and Instagram.
Google is not the first big tech company to add vertical video to its television viewing. Disney+ did it earlier this year, and Instagram also has a TV app, but they’re within apps, not just streamed directly to you when you turn on the TV.
Why is Google adding vertical video to Google TV?
Adding Google Shorts to your home screen is part of Google’s broader mission to keep you within its ecosystem and seeing its ads. At the moment, the home screen recommendations are for movies and shows, and they often send you other services; By adding YouTube Shorts to the mix, you may see a lot of videos from Google’s own services, each with ads.
Vertical video is not the only addition coming to Google TV. Starting today, if you own a TCL TV with Gemini in the US (like the TCL QM8K), you can access more generative AI tools in the form of the Nano Banana and Veo apps, to generate images and videos respectively. They will roll out to more Gemini-compatible TVs and devices in the coming months.
There’s a new Remix feature in Google Photos that lets you change the styles and backgrounds of existing photos using voice commands, and you’ll be able to search for specific photos using voice. There’s also a Live Slideshow feature that will display a selected Google Photos album as a screen saver. That one doesn’t require Gemini.
Whether you like or dislike these features will depend on how you use your TV. As Google describes it, the new features are “designed to help you connect, create and share laughs together” by “unlocking the TV’s potential as a shared creative canvas.”
The new generative AI tools will be available today on compatible US TCL TVs, and most of the new features will roll out to US users this summer. The dynamic presentations will be available worldwide, again in the summer.
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