At the recent “Launch Night In” event held on 30th September 2020, Google TV was touted as Android TV’s successor. It also announced the Chromecast with Google TV.

Going by what the title reads and what the event said, you might be wondering isn’t the Android operating system developed by Google? Isn’t that both Google TV and Android TV power set-top boxes, Smart TVs, and other media streaming services? So, what’s the difference between Google TV and Android TV? This is something we’ll unearth in this blog, so stay tuned.

At the outset, Google TV isn’t a replacement for Android TV. It is still Android TV but a revamped version. This means Google TV will still be running Android TV beneath the skin.

With Google TV, one thing is for sure going to happen, you won’t be overwhelmed with apps, instead, the Google TV home screen will be based around recommendations, TV shows and movies will be pulled from streaming services that you are subscribed to. The credit for this goes to Google Assistant and Knowledge Graph.

Google TV Vs Android TV – Android Version

Another difference is that while Android TV runs on Android 9, Google TV runs on Android 10. In the near future (in another 2 years time) all the devices that currently run Android TV will be upgraded to Google TV.

“Watchlist” – An Exceptional Facet Google TV’s Home Screen

Here’s what we are talking about – Google Assistant has teamed with Knowledge Graph Search. It’ll help you find what to watch. Google Assistant + Knowledge Graph help you find a genre, e.g. romance or sci-fi movie/ TV shows on any of the streaming platforms (e.g. Netflix, Disney +, HBO Max and others)

Are you someone who forgets the name of series or movies? Well! It is not just you, it happens with all of us. But, here’s a great feature that Google TV will bring to you – the “Watchlist”. This feature will allow you to add all your favourite TV series and movies to your “Watchlist” by merely using Google Search on your Smartphone, tablet or another computer.

You can even take the help of the Google TV app (previously named as Google Play Movies & TV app) to find shows and movies.

How cool will that be that after a conversation with a friend, you can instantly say the name of the show or movie, and the same will appear on the “Watchlist” on the big screen?

Remote Control

Consider Google Chromecast with Google TV – it comes with its very own remote which first has buttons with which you can control the system. Taking a notch up, the remote also comes with an AI-powered Google Assistant as well.  All you have to do to activate it is to press the button and speak and voila! Whichever TV show or movie you have asked for will pop up. The remote also has Netflix and YouTube hotkeys embedded right on the remote itself.

Control Your Smart Home Devices

Google TV is well capable of controlling your smart home devices and that too directly from the TV itself. You can view what’s happening on your Nest doorbell or you can switch your Smart home lights on and off straight from your TV screen.

What Devices Have Google TV?

As of now the Chromecast with Google TV comes with the goodness of Google TV. However, as mentioned above in the near future all Android TV boxes and Android TVs will have Google TV.

Wrapping Up

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Google TV has revamped Android TV with its powerful machine learning and not to forget the Google Knowledge Graph and Google Assistant.

The difference between Google TV and Android TV lies with the bouquet of features that Google TV boasts of. We are eager to see if Chromecast with Google TV can compete and in fact take the market from the likes of Apple, Roku and Amazon.  What do you think of the blog and how excited are you about Google TV coming to Android TV and other devices? Do let us know in the comment section below. For more such updates and more tech-related content, keep reading Tweak Library.

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