You will soon be using Android TV with your phones as a remote control

Google will soon allow Android TV users to control their TVs without a remote. Your smartphone can take over this task, also for Google TV. It will not work in the Netherlands at the moment, but it will already work in Belgium.

Smartphone as remote control

Everyone knows this feeling: you lie down on the sofa, only to find that the remote control is painfully far away from you. Then you have to make choices. Are you going to get out of your wonderful lying position for another program, or are you going to continue having fun on the couch, but without the program you would like to see.

Google rids Android TV and Google TV users of such first worlddilemmas with a new feature for the Google TV app. You may be wondering “What is the Google TV app?” Well, it’s a successor to Google Play Movies, which is already available in the United States. Google TV will be able to find the new remote, which looks like a touchpad. One of the benefits is that your phone can also type faster with the keypad compared to the TV remote. In addition, there will be a thumbnail in the quick settings with which you can open the virtual remote even faster.

availablity

And that brings us to the less good news. It’s no surprise that you might not be familiar with the Google TV app. The app was not yet available in the Netherlands and Belgium. This will remain the case in the Netherlands for the time being, but Belgium is one of the 14 countries in which the application is expanding. In the coming weeks, Belgians will therefore find Google TV on their phones and in the Play Store.

We don’t yet know when the app will be available in the Netherlands as well, but it looks like Google is making efforts to roll it out globally. Another question is when Google will make its Chromecast with Google TV available in the Benelux. The supplier KPN may have already revealed that such a launch is in any case on the program.

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