Tag Archives: TV

In-App Ratings and Reviews for TV

Posted by Paul Lammertsma – Developer Relations Engineer

Ratings and reviews are essential for developers, offering quantitative and qualitative feedback on user experiences. In 2022, we enhanced the granularity of this feedback by segmenting these insights by countries and form factors.

Now, we're extending the In-App Ratings and Reviews API to TV to allow developers to prompt users for ratings and reviews directly from Google TV.

Ratings and reviews on Google TV

Ratings and reviews entry point forJetStream sample app on TV

Users can now see rating averages, browse reviews, and leave their own review directly from an app's store listing on Google TV.

Ratings and written reviews input screen on TV

Users can interact with in-app ratings and reviews on their TVs by doing the following:

    • Select ratings using the remote control D-pad.
    • Provide optional written reviews using Gboard’s on-screen voice input, or by easily typing from their phone.
    • Send mobile notifications to themselves to complete their TV app review directly on their phone.

User instructions for submitting TV app ratings and reviews on mobile

Additionally, users can leave reviews for other form factors directly from their phone by simply selecting the device chip when submitting an app rating or writing a review.

We've already seen a considerable lift in app ratings on TV since bringing these changes to Google TV, and now, we're making it possible for developers to trigger a ratings prompt as well.

Before we look at the integration, let's first carefully consider the best time to request a review prompt. First, identify optimal moments within your app to request user feedback, ensuring prompts appear only when the UI is idle to prevent interruption of ongoing content.

In-App Review API

Integrating the Google Play In-App Review API is the same as on mobile and it's only a couple of method calls:

val manager = ReviewManagerFactory.create(context)
manager.requestReviewFlow().addOnCompleteListener { task ->
    if (task.isSuccessful) {
        // We got the ReviewInfo object
        val reviewInfo = task.result
        manager.launchReviewFlow(activity, reviewInfo)
    } else {
        // There was some problem, log or handle the error code
        @ReviewErrorCode val reviewErrorCode =
            (task.getException() as ReviewException).errorCode
    }
}

First, invoke requestReviewFlow() to obtain a ReviewInfo object which is used to launch the review flow. You must include an addOnCompleteListener() not just to obtain the ReviewInfo object, but also to monitor for any problems triggering this flow, such as the unavailability of Google Play on the device. Note that ReviewInfo does not offer any insights on whether or not a prompt appeared or which action the user took if a prompt did appear.

The challenge is to identify when to trigger launchReviewFlow(). Track user actions—identifying successful journeys and points where users encounter issues—so you can be confident they had a delightful experience in your app.

For this method, you may optionally also include an addOnCompleteListener() to ensure it resumes when the returned task is completed.

Note that due to throttling of how often users are presented with this prompt, there are no guarantees that the ratings dialog will appear when requesting to start this flow. For best practices, check this guide on when to request an in-app review.

Get started with In-App Reviews on Google TV

You can get a head start today by following these steps:

    1. Identify successful journeys for users, like finishing a movie or TV show season.
    2. Identify poor experiences that should be avoided, like buffering or playback errors.
    3. Integrate the Google Play In-App Review API to trigger review requests at optimal moments within the user journey.
    4. Test your integration by following the testing guide.
    5. Publish your app and continuously monitor your ratings by device type in the Play Console.

We're confident this integration enables you to elevate your Google TV app ratings and empowers your users to share valuable feedback.

Play Console Ratings graphic

Resources

Explore this announcement and all Google I/O 2025 updates on io.google starting May 22.

Engage users on Google TV with excellent TV apps

Posted by Shobana Radhakrishnan - Senior Director of Engineering, Google TV, and Paul Lammertsma - Developer Relations Engineer, Android

Over the past year, Google TV and Android TV achieved over 270 million monthly active devices, establishing one of the largest smart TV OS footprints. Building on this momentum, we are excited to share new platform features and developer tools designed to help you increase app engagement with our expanding user base.

Google TV with Gemini capabilities

Earlier this year, we announced that we’ll bring Gemini capabilities to Google TV, so users can speak more naturally and conversationally to find what to watch and get answers to complex questions.

A user pulls up Gemini on a TV asking for kid-friendly movie recommendations similar to Jurassic Park. Gemini responds with several movie recommendations

After each movie or show search, our new voice assistant will suggest relevant content from your apps, significantly increasing the discoverability of your content.

A user pulls up Gemini on a TV asking for help explaining the solar system to a first grader. Gemini responds with YouTube videos to help explain the solar system

Plus, users can easily ask questions about topics they're curious about and receive insightful answers with supporting videos.

We’re so excited to bring this helpful and delightful experience to users this fall.

Video Discovery API

Today, we’ve also opened partner enrollment for our Video Discovery API.

Video Discovery optimizes Resumption, Entitlements, and Recommendations across all Google TV form factors to enhance the end-user experience and boost app engagement.

    • Resumption: Partners can now easily display a user's paused video within the 'Continue Watching' row from the home screen. This row is a prime location that drives 60% of all user interactions on Google TV.
    • Entitlements: Video Discovery streamlines entitlement management, which matches app content to user eligibility. Users appreciate this because they can enjoy personalized recommendations without needing to manually update all their subscription details. This allows partners to connect with users across multiple discovery points on Google TV.
    • Recommendations: Video Discovery even highlights personalized content recommendations based on content that users watched inside apps.

Partners can begin incorporating the Video Discovery API today, starting with resumption and entitlement integrations. Check out g.co/tv/vda to learn more.

Jetpack Compose for TV

Compose for TV 1.0 expands on the core and Material Compose libraries

Last year, we launched Compose for TV 1.0 beta, which lets you build beautiful, adaptive UIs across Android, including Android TV OS.

Now, Compose for TV 1.0 is stable, and expands on the core and Material Compose libraries. We’ve even seen how the latest release of Compose significantly improves app startup within our internal benchmarking mobile sample, with roughly a 20% improvement compared with the March 2024 release. Because Compose for TV builds upon these libraries, apps built with Compose for TV should also see better app startup times.

New to building with Compose, and not sure where to start? Our updated Jetcaster audio streaming app sample demonstrates how to use Compose across form factors. It includes a dedicated module for playing podcasts on TV by combining separate view models with shared business logic.

Focus Management Codelab

We understand that focus management can be challenging at times. That’s why we’ve published a codelab that reviews how to set initial focus, prepare for unexpected focus traversal, and efficiently restore focus.

Memory Optimization Guide

We’ve released a comprehensive guide on memory optimization, including memory targets for low RAM devices as well. Combined with Android Studio's powerful memory profiler, this helps you understand when your app exceeds those limits and why.

In-App Ratings and Reviews

Ratings and reviews entry point forJetStream sample app on TV

Moreover, app ratings and reviews are essential for developers, offering quantitative and qualitative feedback on user experiences. Now, we're extending the In-App Ratings and Reviews API to TV to allow developers to prompt users for ratings and reviews directly from Google TV. Check out our recent blog post detailing how to easily integrate the In-App Ratings and Reviews API.

Android 16 for TV

Android 16 for TV

We're excited to announce the upcoming release of Android 16 for TV. Developers can begin using the latest beta today. With Android 16, TV developers can access several great features:

    • Platform support for the Eclipsa Audio codec enables creators to use the IAMF spatial audio format. For ExoPlayer support that includes previous platform versions, see ExoPlayer's IAMF decoder module.
    • There are various improvements to media playback speed, consistency and efficiency, as well as HDMI-CEC reliability and performance optimizations for 64-bit kernels.
    • Additional APIs and user experiences from Android 16 are also available. We invite you to explore the complete list from the Android 16 for TV release notes.

What's next

We're incredibly excited to see how these announcements will optimize your development journey, and look forward to seeing the fantastic apps you'll launch on the platform!

Explore this announcement and all Google I/O 2025 updates on io.google starting May 22.

Everything you need to know about Google TV and Android TV OS


Posted by Shobana Radhakrishnan – Senior Director of Engineering, Google TV, and Paul Lammertsma – Developer Relations Engineer

Over the past year, we’ve seen significant growth of Android TV OS, reaching 220 million monthly active devices with a 47% year-over-year increase. This incredible engagement would not be possible without our dedicated developer community. A massive thank you for your contributions.

Android 14 on TV

We’re bringing Android 14 to TV! The next generation of Android provides improvements in performance, sustainability, accessibility, and multitasking to help you build engaging apps for TVs.

  • Performance and sustainability — Android 14 for TV improves on previous OS versions so users get a snappier, more responsive TV experience. We’ve also added new energy modes to put users in control, helping to reduce a TV’s standby power consumption (see Energy saving image). Ensure your app integrates with MediaSession correctly to prevent content from continuing when input modes change or the panel switches off.
  • Accessibility — New features include color correction, enhanced text options, and improved navigation for users, which can all be toggled on or off using remote shortcuts. Review the accessibility best practices to make sure your app supports these features.
  • Multitasking — Picture-in-picture mode is now supported on qualified Android 14 TV models. To evaluate whether a device supports the feature, query PackageManager for the picture-in-picture feature flag:
    hasSystemFeature(PackageManager.FEATURE_PICTURE_IN_PICTURE)


    For additional details, consult the updated Android TV app quality guidelines and the Android 14 for TV release notes.

    Compose for TV

    Compose for TV is now available in 1.0.0-beta01. We’ve updated the developer tools in Android Studio to include a new project wizard to give you a running start with Compose for TV.

    Here are just a few ways Compose makes it easier to build apps for TV:

      • Dedicated components for TV apps. Explore these components in our design guide or in practice by using our new TV Material Catalog app. Since the previous alpha release, we’ve added lists, navigation, chips, and settings screens.
      • Improved input support and performance. We’ve worked hard to address focus issues and ensure that the UI appears and animates smoothly.
      • Ease of implementation and extensive styling. Add components to your app and customize them with minimal code.
      • Broad form-factor support. Reuse business logic from your phone, tablet, or foldable app to render a TV UI with changes that can be as small as simply adding a ViewModel.

    Beta01 makes two big changes from alpha10:

      • Several components have graduated from experimental.
      • The ImmersiveList composable has been removed from the androidx-tv-material package.

    Carousel and chip components, such as FilterChip, are still experimental, so you’ll want to keep the @ExperimentalTvMaterial3Api annotation if you are using these components in your app. For all other components, you can now remove the @ExperimentalTvMaterial3Api annotation, since these APIs are now available in beta.

    We heard your feedback about the variety in the data types that represent content, which made it difficult to design a component in such a way that it would result in less code. If you are using the ImmersiveList composable from the alpha release, replace it with a custom implementation of an immersive list. While ImmersiveList is no longer part of Compose for TV, you can create an immersive list with just a few lines of code:

    @Composable
fun SampleImmersiveList() {
    val selectedMovie = remember { mutableStateOf<Movie?>(null) }


    // Container
    Box(
        modifier = Modifier
            .fillMaxWidth()
            .height(400.dp)
    ) {
        // Background
        Box(
            modifier = Modifier
                .fillMaxWidth()
                .aspectRatio(20f / 7)
                .background(selectedMovie.background)
        ) {}


        // Rows
        LazyRow(
            modifier = Modifier.align(Alignment.BottomEnd),
            ...
        ) {
            items(movies) { movie ->
                MyMovieCard(
                    modifier = Modifier
                        .onFocusChanged {
                            if (it.hasFocus) {
                                selectedMovie.value = movie
                            }
                        },
                    ...
                ) {}
            }
        }
    }
}

    A complete snippet is available in the immersive list sample.

    Also consult the comprehensive list of changes in the release notes to migrate any renamed or moved components.

    Migrate from the Leanback UI toolkit

    We recommend following our step-by-step migration guide to switch from Leanback to Compose for Android TV.

    Resources

    Whether you’re new to Compose or are in the process of migrating to Compose already, our large collection of resources are here to help you learn best practices for building TV UIs with the modern Android development toolkit, Jetpack Compose:

    Engage with the active Android developer community on Stack Overflow for any bugs you encounter, or submit the bugs through our public bug tracker.

    Thank you for your continued support of Android TV OS. We can’t wait to see what you’ll do on Google TV with the Android 14 TV OS!

App Bundles for Google TV and Android TV

Posted by Josh Wentz, Product Management, Google TV

TLDR: Google TV and Android TV will be requiring Android App Bundles that are archivable starting in May 2023 to save storage for users.

Over the past few decades, TV has transformed from linear channel surfing to on-demand content with multi-app experiences. Today, over 10,000 apps are available on Android TV OS. While software has grown exponentially, TV hardware has remained limited in capacity compared to its phone counterparts. In 2022, smartphones often have a minimum storage size of 64GB, but smart TVs have an average of just 8GB. Less storage results in users having to uninstall apps, hindering their overall TV experience. To help with this problem and others, Android introduced App Bundles in Nov 2020.


What are Android App Bundles?

“Android App Bundles” (AABs) are the standard publishing format on Google Play (phones, tablets, TVs, etc) that have replaced “Android Package Kits” (APKs). App Bundles are smaller, faster, fresher, and better than its precursor. Key benefits include:

  1. Smaller Download/Storage Size - App Bundles create an average of 20% total size savings compared to its equivalent APK counterpart by optimizing for each device.
  2. Less Likely to Uninstall - Since App Bundles enables users with the option to archive (which reclaims ~60% of app storage), users can keep these and more apps on their TV despite limited storage. A quick archive/unarchive user interface is built-in to the TV. Developers can also maintain state for a frictionless later return.
  3. Applicable to All Android Surfaces - App Bundles are helpful for all Android surfaces using the Google Play store including TV, phone, tablet, watch, auto, & more.
  4. Streamlined Delivery & Security - For easier delivery, a single artifact with all of your app's code & resources allows Play store to dynamically serve an optimized app for each device configuration. For greater security, developers can also reset the upload key if it’s lost or compromised.

What is new for TV?

With TV storage confined and users having an increasing appetite for more apps, Google TV and Android TV will be requiring App Bundles starting in May 2023. While this provides about 6-months to transition, we estimate that in most cases it will take one engineer about 3-days to migrate an existing TV app from Android Package Kit (APK) to Android App Bundle (AAB). While developers can configure archiving for their mobile apps, TV apps are required to be archivable so that all users and developers can benefit on storage-constrained TVs.

For TV apps not transitioned in time, Google may hide such apps from the TV surface. If you’re working on a brand new TV app, be sure to use Android App Bundles from the start!


How can TV apps transition?

Visit our Developer Guide to learn more about how to migrate to an Android App Bundle (AAB).

All told, App Bundles bring a delightful experience to both you as developers and your users, especially in the living room. Thank you for your partnership in creating immersive content and entertainment experiences for the future of TV.

Building TV Channels

Posted by Josh Gordon, Developer Advocate

Channel surfing is a popular way of watching TV. You pick up the remote, lean back, and flip through channels to see what’s on. On Android TV, app developers can create their own channel-like experiences using the TV Input Framework.

To the user, the channels you create look and feel just like regular TV channel. But behind the scenes, they stream video over the internet. For example, you can create a channel from a video playlist.

Watch this DevByte for an overview of how to build to a channel, and see the sample app and developer training for more info. The sample shows how to work with a variety of media formats, including HLS, MPEG-Dash, and HTTP Progressive.



If you already have an app that streams video, consider also making your content available as a channel. It’s a great opportunity to increase engagement. We’re excited to see what you develop, and look forward to seeing your content on the big screen!

How the Cloud is Transforming TV Across All Screens

This post is part of DoubleClick's Evolution of TV series. In this series we identify the risks and opportunities around 7 dynamics transforming the advertising landscape as TV programming shifts to delivery over the Internet.

Recently, at the National Association for Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas, we released the fourth installment of our Evolution of TV series where we explore the impact of the cloud on TV's transformation. The premise of this new whitepaper is that everything we know about TV delivery and viewing is about to change.


Everything from the way we watch TV to how it's distributed is changing. The delivery and production of the TV content we're viewing—and sometimes binge-watching on so many screens—is on the cusp of industry-wide innovation as TV delivery shifts from over the air, satellite, or cable to the internet. To support TV programming over the internet, those responsible for delivering the content—the programmers and distributors—are beginning to migrate their operations to a more flexible, agile environment: the cloud


In short, migrating TV to the cloud not only affords programmers and distributors cost savings and efficiency but also enables innovation that could change TV as we know it today into a far more dynamic, personalized, and addressable medium.


Download the PDF to get the entire scoop on how parallel transformations in other industries show us that the cloud will encourage innovation and necessitate agility for programmers and distributors, as well as create a vastly different viewing experience for users.




Anish Kattukaran,

Product Marketing, DoubleClick Video & Brand Measurement

How the Cloud is Transforming TV Across All Screens

This post is part of DoubleClick's Evolution of TV series. In this series we identify the risks and opportunities around 7 dynamics transforming the advertising landscape as TV programming shifts to delivery over the Internet.

Recently, at the National Association for Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas, we released the fourth installment of our Evolution of TV series where we explore the impact of the cloud on TV's transformation. The premise of this new whitepaper is that everything we know about TV delivery and viewing is about to change.


Everything from the way we watch TV to how it's distributed is changing. The delivery and production of the TV content we're viewing—and sometimes binge-watching on so many screens—is on the cusp of industry-wide innovation as TV delivery shifts from over the air, satellite, or cable to the internet. To support TV programming over the internet, those responsible for delivering the content—the programmers and distributors—are beginning to migrate their operations to a more flexible, agile environment: the cloud


In this new whitepaper we explore a few of the cloud migrations happening in specific areas of the TV business like:
  • Subscription services
  • Transcoding and encoding
  • Broadcast automation
  • Stream packaging
  • Signal distribution between partners
  • Signal acquisition between partners
  • Storage and archiving


In short, migrating TV to the cloud not only affords programmers and distributors cost savings and efficiency but also enables innovation that could change TV as we know it today into a far more dynamic, personalized, and addressable medium.


Download the PDF to get the entire scoop on how parallel transformations in other industries show us that the cloud will encourage innovation and necessitate agility for programmers and distributors, as well as create a vastly different viewing experience for users.




Anish Kattukaran,
Product Marketing, DoubleClick Video & Brand Measurement

Join Google & DoubleClick at NAB Show, Monday April 13th at 10:30am PDT

In our Evolution of TV series we've been exploring the 7 dynamics driving TV’s on-going transition to delivery over the internet. In the series we uncover that viewers increasingly want to watch their favorite TV shows anytime, anywhere, and on any screen. Delivering against this cross-screen mix of traditional linear TV and TV over the internet, while making advertising as addressable and measurable as possible, requires both new business models and sophisticated new technology. 

Join Google’s Director of Product Management for Video Advertising, Rany Ng, at NAB Show for some exciting new TV announcements. Rany will take the stage for a keynote speech where she’ll discuss how this new, accelerated viewing model is changing the way that programmers, distributors and publishers deliver and monetize their content across every TV screen.

Following the keynote, Don Norton our Director of Broadcast and Sports Partnerships, will moderate a panel and Q&A session with senior industry thought-leaders from MTV Networks (Viacom), Pelmorex and our own mDialog.

For more details: NAB Show 2015
When: 10:30am, Monday, April 13
Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, Room N239-241
3150 Paradise Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89109

Evolution of TV: Reaching audiences across screens

This post is part of the Evolution of TV series. In this series we identify the risks and opportunities around 7 dynamics transforming the advertising landscape as TV programming shifts to delivery over the Internet.

The lines between TV and the web are blurring, as people increasingly watch TV online on all their devices and watch online video on their TV’s.

In part 1 of our Evolution of TV series, 7 Dynamics Transforming TV (article, PDF of whitepaper), we introduced the increasing shift of TV to delivery over the internet.

The proliferation of screens to “watch TV” on has given Broadcasters increased reach but at the expense of audience fragmentation. In Part 2, Reaching Audiences Across Screens, we discuss how scale, measurement, technology and brand safety come together to address the challenges and create huge opportunities for broadcasters, distributors and advertisers to grow their audiences and increase brand engagement.






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Anish Kattukaran
Product Marketing, DoubleClick Video & Brand Measurement

Evolution of TV: 7 Dynamics Transforming TV

This post is part of the Evolution of TV series. In this series we identify the risks and opportunities around 7 dynamics transforming the advertising landscape as TV programming shifts to delivery over the Internet.

Viewers increasingly want to watch their favorite TV shows anytime, anywhere, and on any screen. There's lots of TV content online, but hitting all three of those checkboxes isn't yet possible for every piece of programming. To do so requires a greater shift to delivering TV programming over the Internet rather than just over the air, satellite, or cable. Sounds simple, right? It's not. It is a massive shift that has game-changing implications for everyone involved.

This shift isn’t just impacting TV programmers and distributors, but also the viewers watching their favorite TV shows and sports teams across every screen, and the advertisers telling their brand stories against that content.

Today we are introducing the first part in a series called the Evolution of TV. In this series, DoubleClick and Google have identified 7 dynamics transforming the advertising landscape as TV programming shifts to delivery over the Internet. These 7 dynamics fall into three key areas:
  • Viewer engagement 
  • Delivery over the Internet and cloud 
  • Advertising 
Download the first part of the series now to learn the risks and opportunities associated with each of the 7 dynamics transforming the TV landscape and driving the shift of the $68 billion TV advertising industry.


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Anish Kattukaran
Marketing, DoubleClick Video