Android TV “O” developer preview (which will later become Android TV 8.0) have got a new TV Launcher user interface that allegedly “makes it much easier to find, preview, and watch content provided by apps” directly from the launcher without first opening video content apps (like Netflix or Kodi / SPMC).
Couple of quick overviews of what is new from an end-user perspective posted on androidtv.news here (including the new TvProvider APIs):
https://androidtv.news/2017/05/tonight-l...vs-new-ux/
https://androidtv.news/2017/05/analysis-...ndroid-tv/
Anyway, from a developers point this new TV Launcher is customizable as users can control the channels that appear on the homescreen. App developers will be able to create app channels using the new "TvProvider" support library APIs.
https://developer.android.com/preview/fe...ncher.html
UPDATE: androidtv.news now also posted a deep-dive into the new the TvProvider APIs here:
https://androidtv.news/2017/05/deep-dive...ider-apis/
To summerize; everything in Android TV “O” new TV Launcher is now organized into “Channels” and “Programs”.
You can take a look at both in this CNET interview with the Android TV lead.
You can see the new TV Launcher seems to be completely revamped with inline videos. As you highlight over a certain item, a video can start playing and the background transitions to new colors based on the thumbnail. These videos come from different sources, like Netflix or Kodi / SPMC, and provides a much faster way of accessing content. It will be coming with Android "O".
As you can see, the new launcher is both familiar and vastly different. There is still the apps row and the search area. You can see icons for settings, the time, and a few other icons. Yet there are now several new rows for content which can be dynamically populated by apps. The whole system now looks like Leanback. The Watch Next is a sort of universal queue for content. If you need to stop halfway through a movie, that app can put the content in Watch Next so that you can quickly resume. Or if you finished episode 3 of a series, it can suggest episode 4. This will always appear second in the rows.
There are now also an additional demo available in yesterdays Google I/O 2017 session “What’s New in Android TV“ (from 6PM PST on the 17th of May):
https://events.google.com/io/schedule/?s...301bd4217b
Video of that whole session is available here:
You can test Android TV "O" developer preview 2 and later by joining the Android O beta program if you own a Nexus Player (Google's reference Android TV box)
http://android.com/beta
Couple of quick overviews of what is new from an end-user perspective posted on androidtv.news here (including the new TvProvider APIs):
https://androidtv.news/2017/05/tonight-l...vs-new-ux/
https://androidtv.news/2017/05/analysis-...ndroid-tv/
Anyway, from a developers point this new TV Launcher is customizable as users can control the channels that appear on the homescreen. App developers will be able to create app channels using the new "TvProvider" support library APIs.
https://developer.android.com/preview/fe...ncher.html
UPDATE: androidtv.news now also posted a deep-dive into the new the TvProvider APIs here:
https://androidtv.news/2017/05/deep-dive...ider-apis/
To summerize; everything in Android TV “O” new TV Launcher is now organized into “Channels” and “Programs”.
You can take a look at both in this CNET interview with the Android TV lead.
You can see the new TV Launcher seems to be completely revamped with inline videos. As you highlight over a certain item, a video can start playing and the background transitions to new colors based on the thumbnail. These videos come from different sources, like Netflix or Kodi / SPMC, and provides a much faster way of accessing content. It will be coming with Android "O".
As you can see, the new launcher is both familiar and vastly different. There is still the apps row and the search area. You can see icons for settings, the time, and a few other icons. Yet there are now several new rows for content which can be dynamically populated by apps. The whole system now looks like Leanback. The Watch Next is a sort of universal queue for content. If you need to stop halfway through a movie, that app can put the content in Watch Next so that you can quickly resume. Or if you finished episode 3 of a series, it can suggest episode 4. This will always appear second in the rows.
There are now also an additional demo available in yesterdays Google I/O 2017 session “What’s New in Android TV“ (from 6PM PST on the 17th of May):
https://events.google.com/io/schedule/?s...301bd4217b
Video of that whole session is available here:
You can test Android TV "O" developer preview 2 and later by joining the Android O beta program if you own a Nexus Player (Google's reference Android TV box)
http://android.com/beta
