Android TV

Google brings ‘Quick Access’ row to Android TV’s homescreen

Ben Schoon | Feb 20 2024 - 4:03 pm PT

The Android TV experience has been replaced at this point, but it’s still getting feature updates (for some reason). This week, Google is launching a new “Quick Access” row on the Android TV homescreen.

Rolling out starting today to Android TV devices like the Nvidia Shield TV (but not the Chromecast with Google TV), you’ll find a new row with controls for showing what appears in the row directly underneath your various apps. This “Quick Access” row defaults to the current state which is the “Play Next” row that shows content you’ve recently watched across various supported apps.

But with a click on the other topics, you can swap that out with some free live channels, or a list of popular movies. The full list includes:

Free Live TV
Top Selling Movies
Popular Movies and Shows
Trending on Google

The brief post where Google announced this new feature doesn’t show what these other categories look like when they populate this row, but the UI is presumably similar.

Google explains:

We’re excited to keep adding new features that make finding your favorite movies and shows on Android TV quick and easy. Starting today in the U.S., and rolling out over the next few weeks, you’ll discover new ways to access top entertainment directly on the home screen. Located below the Favorite Apps row, you’ll find quick access to play what’s next, watch free live TV, explore popular titles and see what’s trending on Google — no need to jump app to app.

Notably, this sort of functionality doesn’t really exist on the Google TV experience. It’s the first new feature Google has brought to Android TV that hasn’t been to bring the experience up to feature parity with Google TV in quite some time.

Google says this feature is rolling out “over the next few weeks.” There’s nothing specified on if this has any region restrictions.