Google announced earlier this week at its I/O conference that Android apps are coming to Google TV this summer, and the search giant gave developers a sneak peek:
This is the welcome screen with the app market highlighted in the app bar along the bottom — which looks similar to Android tablets. TV is playing in the main window, and apps can launch as overlay widgets over the screen. Google said it’s also open-sourcing the software for the Google TV remote control.
And here’s the new search screen on Google TV. Users who have the software will be pushed an update this summer, and device-makers like Samsung and Logitech are working on new product updates that tie to the updated Google TV. For developers, here’s an hour-long session on the Android-for-TV apps.
Also, YouTube showed an early look (above) at the updated version of YouTube Leanback, optimized for viewing on TV. Upon launching, it begins playing immediately. “It’s meant to take the entire YouTube corpus, hundreds of millions of videos, and turn them into a lean-back experience,” says a YouTube product manager in the demo. It plays videos based on your viewing behavior — and based on clips “favorited” by people who you’ve subscribed to on YouTube. “It’s playing one very important channel – the channel of you,” he said.
The new YouTube Leanback will start rolling out in beta later this summer.
