‘Chromecast with Google TV’ is not a good name

This is the least important part of the next 4K Chromecast — RAM, then storage (fight me in the comments below), but I don’t think “Chromecast with Google TV” is a good name/brand by any stretch.

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The biggest justification in 2020 was the reintroduction of the “Google TV” brand, with the new Chromecast pulling double duty as the first device and raising awareness about the updated operating system/experience. It was also needed to contrast the new dongle with the Cast-based one (3rd-generation) that would remain on sale for two more years. 

Enough time has passed that I don’t think “with Google TV” is needed anymore. It adds too much to the product name before “4K” or “HD” is appended to the end, while the name to me evokes the early days of carrier variant Android phones.

The company might feel the need to brand it, but “Google Chromecast” would more than suffice. I don’t think people have too much awareness about tvOS, Roku OS, Fire TV OS, and other smart television operating systems. Of all of them, “Chromecast” is the one that doesn’t need any branding given its legacy. 

Additionally, I don’t think “with Google TV” drives too much traffic to the mobile Android and iOS apps. I’ve tried to use them as a basic content directory, but I always end up using Google Search (or Wikipedia, IMDB, etc.). Meanwhile, I entirely use YouTube’s “Your movies & TV” section to access my purchases and it’s pretty good. 

Another thing I attempted to use the Google TV app for was as a movie and TV show-focused Discover, but that “Highlights” feed hasn’t stuck. 

Speaking of YouTube, “Google TV” being called “YouTube TV” to fully consolidate the company’s media offerings makes for an interesting thought experiment.

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