Android TV and Google TV: What are they and why should you care?

If you’re in the market for a TV then there are two terms that you are going to be hearing a lot of that can easily get you confused. Those two terms are Android TV and Google TV.

Android TV is a term that many readers of Android Kenya will be familiar with as we focus on it quite a lot here, as would be expected. Google TV, on the other hand, is still nascent and only gets a passing mention here. However, as we will see below, going forward, you can expect to hear a lot more about Google TV.

What is a smart TV?

Now, before even getting to Google TV and Android TV, there are other platforms that are related that also cause some confusion: smart TV and “Android TV”. Let me get to smart TV first and we will dissect “Android TV” (the quotes are there for a reason) later when talking about Android TV and Google TV.

A smart TV is a television that has built-in internet connectivity and access to online content services like streaming video and music, social media, web browsing and gaming.

That is the simple definition.

The built-in internet connectivity implies the existence of radios that allow it to access a Wi-Fi signal in order to access the internet or an ethernet port that allows one to plug in a cable to provide the needed connectivity to the information superhighway. These days, almost all smart TVs have both an ethernet port as well as wireless radios to make it possible to connect to wireless local area networks (LANs) and access the internet.

These days, smart TVs also offer voice recognition capabilities either directly by having microphones or through the remote controllers they ship with, allowing users hands-free access to content and control options. Some also allows users to mirror content from other devices such as smartphones, tablets and personal computers (PCs) without the need for a cable.

Any TV that natively runs either Android TV or Google TV is a smart TV. The word “native” here is important since you can buy a dongle like a Chromecast with Google TV or a Xiaomi TV Box S and hook them up to the HDMI port on a “dumb” TV. That doesn’t necessarily make that dumb TV a smart TV. It just lets it have smart TV capabilities and it is a highly recommended thing to do especially since streaming boxes and dongles are significantly more affordable compared to going all out to purchase a brand new smart TV.

However, a smart TV, as we will see below, doesn’t necessarily run on either of those two platforms. There are other smart TV platforms out there that, while they may play nice with Android devices and allow users to cast content to them, run their apps on their phones and tablets and all, are not necessarily based on Android. These include smart TV platforms like Roku, Apple TV (Apple), Fire TV (Amazon), webOS (LG), Tizen (Samsung), VIDAA (Hisense), etc.

Android TV

Android TV is a television platform powered by Android, the mobile operating system. As such, it offers users access to the Play Store, availing applications and games developed specifically for big TV screens. Additionally, it allows users to interact with it using the Google Assistant (voice) and integrates with Google Cast to allow the casting of audio and video content on TVs universally from any compatible Android devices (smartphones and tablets).

Google TV

Google TV, on the other hand, is not a platform like Android TV but, rather, a software interface that works on top of Android TV. It exists out of the need to modernize Android TV and what it offers.

Google TV allows users easy access to live TV programming which is integrated there, easy management of their smart homes and other connected and compatible smart devices as well as the most visible feature: more personalized content, some sorted by AI, front and centre. In the background, Android TV handles everything as the backbone on which everything is built.

This is why on streaming boxes like our darling, the NVIDIA Shield TV, one has access to both the traditional Android TV interface (here’s my Shield with it), since the Shield runs on Android TV, as well as the Google TV interface, depending on which country they are in.

Given its versatility and incorporation of modern features, the Google TV interface is what most of us can expect to see on streaming sticks, boxes and smart TVs going forward. Already, Sony, one of the largest TV brands on the Android TV platform, has jumped ship and all its latest TVs come with the Google TV experience fresh out of the box.

One of the things that shows Google TV’s futuristic approach to things is the existence of a Basic mode feature that, as the name insinuates, lets users use the basics on their TV and not bothering with any of the internet-centred features like streaming apps and the like. You know, just accessing live TV broadcasts which Google TV does a good job integrating and, well, plugging in external boxes. Basic mode is only available on televisions and is not accessible on streaming dongles and boxes. The reason for that is simple: on externally connected devices, if you don’t want the smart features they bring to your TV, you just disconnect them. But, what if it is the smart features on your smart TV that you don’t want? It also makes sense for users with smart TVs who lack an internet connection. No one needs a constant reminder that they can’t watch the Real Housewives of Nairobi on Showmax.

Here’s an easy way of distinguishing the two:

Android TV is a version of the Android operating system designed for televisions, and Google TV is a newer version of Android TV with a more user-friendly interface and personalized recommendations.

As already highlighted, both Google TV and Android TV are available directly through smart television sets that run them out of the box or through streaming boxes and dongles.

Google’s Chromecast dongles let users bring the magic of Google TV to any television set whether smart (and running another smart TV operating system like, say, LG’s webOS or Samsung’s Tizen) or dumb (a normal TV that traditionally only accesses digital or terrestrial TV channels and can be connected to DVD players and the likes), for instance.

Streaming boxes like Safaricom’s Ematic 4K box, Xiaomi’s Mi Box S and others bring Android TV to existing smart or dumb TVs as well.

If one purchases a TV from various brands like Syinix, Infinix, TCL, Sony and even Hisense (limited to some specific units as most run on VIDAA, Hisense’s own TV OS) in Kenya, they can experience, first-hand on their televisions, the power of Android TV.

“Android TV”

Now, while Google has offered Android TV the platform we have mentioned above for years, it requires a TV maker to license the same from it, in the same manner and arrangement it requires smartphone and tablet makers to license the mobile operating system from it in order to run it on their devices alongside the bundled Google apps like Chrome, YouTube, Maps, and others while accessing more from the Google Play Store.

Given the open-source nature of Android, and that Android TV just started existing the other day, some TV makers, especially those that are not mainstream from China, ship televisions that run on Android but it’s not necessarily Android TV. It’s just the Android you know. Since it doesn’t have Google’s blessings, one doesn’t get dedicated TV apps but they have a functional smart TV interface and the TV maker may even include wrappers to various popular apps on TVs like Netflix so that they can be accessed even in the absence of an out and out app. Some may even have the Play Store pre-installed and just blow up all apps on a big TV display.

In downtown Nairobi and other places in Kenya, you are likely to come across these kinds of televisions. They are still smart TVs and will serve the purpose but the experience will be disjointed and not as smooth as their counterparts running the real Android TV or, now, Google TV. In the same breadth, streaming boxes that avoid Google’s certification process and just have Android slapped on them also exist and are in plenty and cost significantly less.