What is AndroidTV?
AndroidTV is a system based on the Android system known from phones and tablets. Android TV compared to Android itself is a software adapted to work with TV sets and TV BOX devices. So it is dedicated to these devices.
The Android TV system does not require touch screen operation, it is controlled by means of a remote control or other controller connected to the device on which it is installed. This is one of the reasons why many applications known from Google Play will never work fully on AndroidTV. They won’t work even if we install them manually bypassing the official Google Play Store for AndroidTV.
Support for Google Play games and applications
AndroidTV, just like the Android system, has access to Google Play, but the choice of applications is much more modest and often even completely limits the possibilities of using AndroidTV. Google Play for Android TV is limited only to applications that can be controlled by remote control. Initially, when Android TV was in the development phase but was already officially distributed, Google Play had not so much more than another type of application, also known from phones. To operate some of them it was necessary to have an external mouse or keyboard and it was raining. Over time, Android TV has become an increasingly closed system, and Google has mainly focused on distributing multimedia applications – once, friendly to use with a remote control, two, directed mainly at broadly understood multimedia (movies, music, internet channels, etc.).
Although the Android TV system has changed a lot over the past 4 years, it still remains a very attractive system for TVs. First of all, for support for countless applications. Personally, as the only sensible competitor I would put Samsung’s Tizen system here, although it is worth remembering that in this case each application is created with Tizen support in mind. Samsung, however, strongly supports and cares for the development of the system and the delivery of new software. The Tizen system has also been found in Samsung’s Smart devices, e.g. watches, where programmers must also create them for a specific device and its capabilities.
First there was Google, then there was AndroidTV
AndroidTV has its beginning in the Google TV system which, however, was excluded from further development and replaced by a new – Android TV from Google. The main reason was that the Google TV platform did not support Google Play. Android TV based on Android, which Google has been creating for a long time, has become a system with virtually no restrictions. In addition, its popularity meant that creating applications was not much different from creating them for Android alone.
AndroidTV also supports Google Cast as standard, which means that the system is simply loved by many users.
However, just like Android itself on phones, as the application is updated and added, Android TV can also make life miserable – it slurries and requires more and more power. Unfortunately, TV manufacturers do not look at Android TV as they do on Android phones and do not rush towards adding huge amounts of memory or subsequent processor cores. On the one hand, it is justified, on the other hand, as I have proved many times, it can sometimes cause that not only Android TV will start to work slowly, but all TV operation – changing programs, lowering the voice, will be unsatisfyingly slow.
Android TV as the default TV producer system
Android TV is also of great importance for TV producers – thanks to which the best examples are SONY and Philips – they could give up the development of their own SmartTV and focus on the hardware area. They do not only have to create SmartTV but also do not have to create their own applications that support the system, such as media services from YouTube or Netflix. Google offers it as standard and does it well. It should be remembered, however, that the best example here was SONY, that the development of equipment and the imposed system can lead to many problems and very free update time. The manufacturer must indicate the errors, Google must want to fix them and all