Google TV May See Smart Home and Fitness Features This Year

Google is looking to expand its Google TV platform by adding more features and working more closely with streaming services.

In a recent interview, Rob Caruso, Google TV Director of Product Management, specifically pointed to adding smart home and fitness capabilities to the platform. He also revealed that he’s working on mending the company’s relationship with Netflix.

Caruso doesn't give specifics on what features people can expect to arrive on their Google TV devices but gave an overview of the general direction the platform is going in. The team is looking to integrate smart home capabilities and grow its video call features, like adding Zoom to Google TV.

Fitness is another field that the developers are looking into, according to Caruso, and may involve integrating Google's line of athletic devices and services.

As for Netflix and other streaming services, Caruso has promised to improve relations with them and bring their content to Google TV. Currently, Netflix doesn't allow people to add shows and movies from its service to Google TV's watchlist, much to people's annoyance.

And to facilitate all this, Google is working to expand its platform’s presence on displays across the world. Caruso reveals that Google is working with 250 device partners to add its service onto more Android TVs. He stated that most active devices use the old Android TV platform instead, which they hope to change soon.

It’s unknown when any of this will come to fruition, as Caruso didn’t provide any dates in the interview but did say these features should come out later this year.