Google TV is Soon Getting a Homescreen Widget for Android

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Recently, the Google TV app for Android operating system was redesigned with the Material You design. Google is following up the Material You design with a special Android homescreen widget for the Google TV.

This widget was spotted in December with the version number 4.38.7.4. Google TV has now showed up in the Widgets list. However, it is too early to speak about its launch date because it is still not ready. The widget is said to have a preview size of 4×5. The widget cannot go below this size. But it can expand beyond this to fill up the whole screen of you phone.

The Current Google TV Widget is Very Limited

The current feature on Android device does not really do the work like how a full Google TV widget should work. What you get now is just a short bar of Google TV which shares a border with Google Search. Tapping on it only opens the keyword and a remote shortcut. When you tap on the center of the shortcut, it only opens up the Home Tab of the app.

With the size of the widget, you can expect it to have the ability to display content recommendations directly from Google TV to your home screen. A feature which is currently available on other streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix.

Google May Launch Two Widgets Together with the Google TV Widget

For some months now, Google has been working on other widgets such as Contacts Widget and the Google app widget. If things go according to plan, Google may launch all three widgets at the same time. The Widget in the screenshot above is taken from a Google Pixel 7 Pro smartphone. The phone runs on Android 13 QPR2 Beta version. Sources claim that the app does not work on other older device at the moment.

Google may be working on widgets for tablet first. In September 2022, Google introduced something called widgets optimized for tablets. As it stands now, Google still places shortcuts on the right side. But the main widgets offer more functionalities on larger displays.