The platform was first unveiled in June 2014, and was first made available on the Nexus Player that November. The platform has been adopted as smart TVmiddleware by companies such as Sony and Sharp, while Android TV products have also been adopted as set-top boxes by a number of IPTV television providers.
A special edition called Android TV Operator Tier is provided to service operators that implement Android TV on the device they provide to their subscribers to access media content. In this edition, the operator can customize the home screen and services on the device.[3]
History
Android TV was first announced at Google I/O in June 2014, as a successor to the commercially unsuccessful Google TV. The Verge characterized it as being more in line with other digital media player platforms, but leveraging Google's Knowledge Graph project; Chromecast compatibility; a larger emphasis on search; closer ties to the Android ecosystem (including Google Play Store and integration with other Android families such as Android Wear); and native support for video games, Bluetoothgamepads, and the Google Play Games framework.[4][5] Some attendees received the platform's development kit, the ADT-1; The Information reported that the ADT-1 was based on a scrapped "Nexus TV" launch device that was being developed internally by Google.[6][7] Google unveiled the first Android TV device, the Nexus Player developed by Asus, at a hardware event in October 2014.[8]
The ADT-2 development kit device was released before the release of Android TV 9.0.[9] Android TV 10 was released on December 10, 2019,[10] together with the ADT-3 development kit.[11] Android TV 11 was released for the ADT-3 on September 22, 2020, while rollouts were planned for original equipment manufacturer partners in subsequent months.[12]
Features
The Android TV platform is an adaptation of the Android OS for set-top boxes and as integrated software on smart TV hardware. Its home screen uses a vertically-scrolling, row-based interface, including a "content discovery" area populated by suggested content, followed by "Watch Now" rows that surface media content from installed apps. Android TV supports voice input for commands and universal search across multiple services; selected devices also support Google Assistant. All Android TV devices support Google Cast, allowing media to be played on them from supported apps[13] on other devices in an identical manner to Chromecast. Android TV supports software from the Play Store, including media apps and games (although not all Google Play apps are compatible with Android TV).[14] Some Android TV devices, such as the Nvidia Shield and Razer Forge TV, are also marketed as microconsoles and bundled with a Bluetooth wireless gamepad.[15][16][17][18][19][20]
A modified Android TV user interface, branded "Google TV" (unrelated to the company's discontinued smart TV platform of the same name), debuted on the Chromecast with Google TV streaming device, which was released on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the rebranding of the Google Play Movies & TV video-on-demand (VOD) service to Google TV on Android devices.[21] The Google TV interface emphasizes content recommendations and discovery across different services and installed apps, compared to the stock Android TV interface that is more focused on navigating between individual installed apps. Google TV is compatible with over 6,500 apps built for Android TV.[22]
As of February 2022[update], Google TV integrates with 42 streaming services for use in its content aggregation features in the United States:[23]
The Google TV interface will be replacing the stock Android TV interface by the end of 2022, starting with set-top boxes, dongles, and smart TVs in 2021.[24]
The ADT-1 digital media player, part of the official development kit for Android TV
Televisions
During Google I/O 2014, Google announced that Sony, Sharp, and TP Vision/Philips would release smart TVs with Android TV integrated in 2015. It was noted that support for handling TV-specific functions, such as input switching and tuning, were natively integrated into the Android platform.[25][26]
Sony unveiled a range of Bravia smart TVs running Android TV at CES 2015.[27] Sharp released two TV models on June 10, 2015.[28][29] Philips announced that 80% of their 2015 TVs will run Android TV,[30] the first two models of which were released in June 2015.[30]
OnePlus has also launched several TVs running on the Android TV platform. All OnePlus TVs run on Android TV 9, except the newly launched OnePlus TV U1S which runs Android TV 10.[33]
OnePlus sister company Realme has also launched several TVs running on Android TV platform.[34][35]
TCL Corporation announced a range smart TVs running Android 11 (and Google TV) at CES 2021.[36]
Set-top boxes
Several pay television providers have released IPTV services using Android TV-based hardware as opposed to a proprietary set-top box, including Telekom Malaysia's Unifi Plus Box,[37]LG Uplus's U+ tvG Woofer and U+ tvG 4K UHD,[38] French ISP Free's Freebox Mini 4K,[39] and Bouygues Telecom's BBox Miami.[40]Dish Network released an Android TV device in 2017 known as the AirTV Player, marketed as a companion to its Sling TV service, and supporting an optional adapter for attaching an antenna to receive over-the-air television.[41]Verizon Wireless, Tivo, and T-Mobile USA each offer a company-branded Android TV streaming dongle called Verizon Stream, TiVo Stream 4K, and the T-Vision Hub, respectively. In 2020, AT&T launched AT&T TV as its new flagship pay television service, which is based on an Android TV set-top box and the infrastructure of its OTT service DirecTV Now.[42][43][44]
