[Update: Rolling out] Android TV update adds watchlist, recommendation features from Google TV

Ben Schoon | Aug 4 2021 - 9:46 am PT

The arrival of Google TV has pushed the direction of Android TV, for better or for worse. Following a redesign based on Google TV earlier this year, more features are coming over to Android TV, including support for the watchlist and more.

Update 8/4: This feature is now rolling out widely.

With another new Android TV homescreen update, Google is delivering three new features to devices, such as the Nvidia Shield, various Hisense and Sony TVs, and basically everything that isn’t a Chromecast.

The first of these new features is the biggest, with Android TV now getting access to your Google account Watchlist. You’ll see your current watchlist as a row on the “Discover” tab. As for adding new content to the watchlist, any content shown on the Android TV “Discover” tab will show an “Add to Watchlist” option upon a long-press.

You can now keep track of all your discoveries by adding them to your watchlist. If you find a show or movie you’d like to save for later, add it to your watchlist either by long-pressing on it from the Discover tab and selecting “Add to Watchlist” or pressing the “Watchlist” button from the details page. Your watchlist will appear as a row on the Discover tab, and you can add and remove shows and movies from your watchlist from other devices, like your phone or laptop, using Google Search or the Google TV mobile app.

Another feature making its way over from Google TV is the ability to “tune” your recommendations. As pictured below, this option offers a Tinder-like way to say you like or don’t like a specific movie or TV show. Those choices will then be used to improve your recommendations on the “Discover” tab.

Finally, Google is also adding “Immersive Detail Pages” to Android TV. These are essentially trailers that will play on the homescreen when you access certain content. This feature can be turned off in the Settings, though.

We’ve updated detail pages with a more cinematic experience. Trailers are easy to access right from the page and will now play automatically if available. If you’d like to turn them off, you can go to Settings > Device Preferences > Home Screen and turn off “Enable video previews”.

Update 8/4: A couple of weeks after Google’s announcement, it seems this feature is now rolling out widely. While some users may have received the update before this week, updates released on August 2 to the Android TV Home and Core Services apps seem to have flipped the switch on this feature for most folks. We’re seeing the change on our own hardware and seeing numerous user reports confirming the rollout. This update will only hit your device if you’re living in a region with Android TV’s “Discover” homescreen.