- TCL has the first Google TV-powered devices with Gemini integrated
- Google’s two TV bets include far-field microphones and Always On TV
- Google TV and Android TV have 300 million monthly active devices
This week Google TV took another step to shore up two of its TV-focused bets by rolling out its AI assistant Gemini and voice-based features meant to make interacting with TVs easier, more natural and a two-way conversation.
It’s part of a features rollout that supports Google’s vision for TVs as not only devices to watch entertainment but rather home hubs that users interact with through natural conversation for a variety of use cases.
TV-maker TCL’s latest premium QD-Mini LED TVs, the QM9K series, were announced Thursday and mark the industry’s first Google TV-powered devices to come with Gemini baked in and to have the new capabilities. Gemini and corresponding features will later roll out to other existing Android TV and Google TVs throughout the rest of this year and into 2026.
Google’s Shalini Govil-Pai, VP & GM of Android TV, spoke with StreamTV Insider about some of the new capabilities and the evolution of smart TVs – where it has two main bets with its next set of releases: Far-field microphones and “always on” TV. Plus, help from AI.
After different roles at Google and later YouTube since 2006, Govil-Pai joined the Google Android TV initiative back in 2017 and recalls when much of the smart TV experience was still a grid of apps.
By working closely with the tech giant’s search and discovery team, in more recent years it added what is now known as Google TV on top of the Android TVOS as a way to improve, quicken and ease the content search and discovery process.
Since then, the OS-maker introduced Google Assistant to TV devices, which, while only providing minimal support for voice, could handle simple commands like “open Netflix” or “show me a video on YouTube” and quickly get viewers to where they wanted to be.
Still, Govil-Pai acknowledged it’s “very limited in the actions that it could take” for the TV screen.
Fast forward today to AI Large Language Models (LLMs) and voice-based interfaces.
Now “with the power of very natural language conversation capabilities,” Google TV is focused on, and TVs are poised to get, an injection of artificial intelligence with the integration of the Gemini AI assistant. The Gemini-related capabilities get their own assist from far-field microphones, like those on TCL’s new smart TV series, which enable hands-free voice interactions.
There’s also newly disclosed momentum for Google TV (which also includes Android TV). According to Govil-Pai, Google TV now has 300 million monthly active devices. Google’s last disclosure roughly a year ago was 270 million monthly actives.
What’s new with Gemini on TV: Hands-free content discovery and natural conversation
Earlier TV devices focused on branded remote buttons that instantly bring you into an app, but with the addition of Gemini, the rollout on the latest Google TV-powered TCL TVs allows for a hands-free voice experience thanks to built-in microphones.
“The premise is, if your TV has a far-field microphone, you can talk to it at any given time,” Govil-Pai explained.
That’s possible on the newest TCL TVs, but Google’s rolling out Gemini in its next-gen devices as well as existing Google-powered TVs over time, which will support voice-based prompts and queries via users’ voice-enabled remote control.
Still, one of the two hypotheses Govil-Pai said Google has for TVs moving forward is that they’ll all come with far-field mics - so that when coupled with LLMs, households can have natural conversations with the TV set around their own specific needs or wants.
And with Gemini integrated, while those prompts can still be as simple as “open up Netflix,” for example, “now you can ask it much more,” she noted.
A key capability of Gemini is enabling back-and-forth natural conversation-style communication with the TV set.
For example, one could prompt the Gemini-enabled TCL TVs with something like “Show me some animated movies that are suitable for kids.” Then users could ask follow-up questions like “Is Despicable Me 4 appropriate for my kids of age five?” and “Do I have to watch the first three in the series before I start to watch this?”
“It’s a very natural conversation that your family can have and then decide what to watch,” Govil-Pai commented.
The updated version of Google TV with Gemini uses the same interface that was used for Google Assistant but now it incorporates an LLM inside, generating responses similar to what a user might get if they used a Gemini app. But it has been modified for the TV in the sense that all of the text is condensed and that results have videos attached – because while Google’s second hypothesis is “always on TV”, video consumption is still the primary use.
And the Gemini integration doesn’t just allow users to talk to their TV – but the TV talks back, providing both a text-based and voice-based output response.
“If you actually had this experience in your home [the TV] would actually speak it out loud, the TV would voice it,” Govil-Pai explained.
TVs that go beyond media
The integration of Gemini is one where Google sees TVs - and the ability for natural conversation - being utilized for applications beyond media.
Govil-Pai shared a few use-cases it envisions, such as education, travel and shopping.
One example could be prompting a Google-powered, Gemini-enabled TV with “Can you explain the solar system to my first grader?” who is in the room. The TV would then voice back information and provide text-based responses, while also surfacing videos at the bottom that are curated for a first grader on that topic.
“And if you change this query for a fifth grader, then it would actually change the videos that it displays,” she explained. “And it will also change the text, because it’s smart enough to understand that’s what you want.”
Right now this feature also provides a boost for YouTube, as all related video results surfaced are pulled from the Google-owned social video platform (which already has proven to be a force on CTV and regularly dominates streaming TV time in the U.S. per Nielsen’s The Gauge).
But eventually, “the goal is to include [content] from everywhere” in results, Govil-Pai noted.
While Google TV can’t go into videos across apps available on its platform to do more detailed, scene-by-scene analysis (unless it has the right permissions) it does get metadata from content partners about their programming, which helps for a more universal search than only content on Google-owned properties.
Shopping and travel among potential use cases
Google TV also imagines travel and shopping as likely to be among the biggest use-cases and are ones its currently exploring with Gemini on TVs.
In a travel use case example, Govil-Pai described how someone could be interested in going to Tokyo. They could ask “Google, can you tell us more about how to experience Tokyo?” – which could then pull up top destinations and suggestions, as well as videos people have posted about the city. As a follow-up, one might say “I want to learn more about the bullet train that goes from Tokyo to Kyoto” which would deliver more information via the TV.
Eventually the company wants to pull other Google tech and capabilities in, and further along the smart TV evolution can see frictionless on-screen shopping through the use of agentic AI (or AI agents).
Sticking with the travel use case for a minute, she shared:
“Eventually we want this to be integrated with Google Travel as well, so you’d be able to look at what tickets you could buy, how you would buy it, maybe offload some of that to your phone,” Govil-Pai said.
And over time, if there are agentic elements, then it would allow users to shop from the TV as well.
Govil-Pai noted that all of those are evolving, and agentic AI is new especially for TV, but it’s where Google TV thinks the technology is particularly helpful to make on-screen commerce a reality.
While there are certainly shoppable or commerce efforts already at play by streamers today on CTV, viewers actually making a purchase from the TV screen isn’t as likely currently, she noted, because of hassles like needing to manually input payment information.
“But if there’s an agent, that makes it much more frictionless,” she said. “And so we really believe there’s a big use case there.”
Photos a top application for Always On TV
The notion of “always on TV” – or one where consumers use their TV even when not watching content (like the screen showcasing artwork or photos), is one Google TV has leaned into before.
Govil-Pai previously told StreamTV Insider that was one of the trend shifts that helped inform the launch of the Google TV Streamer device last year, which replaced Chromecast and serves as a smart home hub. Other TV players have looked to leverage the TV screen for use beyond watching media or while idle, like the Roku City screen saver as just one example.
Consumer survey data from Hub Entertainment Research shows consumers are already using their TV sets for more than movies and shows, but having it constantly on isn’t a behavior that’s totally caught on at this point.
Per Hub’s “Evolution of the TV Set” report, just 6% report having their most-used TV on all the time, while over a quarter report sometimes leaving it on when no one is watching it. Most (53%) said it’s only on when someone’s sitting in front of the TV.
But even if consumers aren’t quite in “always on” TV mode just yet, the devices themselves might encourage the behavior as they evolve.
Govil-Pai said TVs are now coming with sensors that can detect if there are people in the room or not, meaning the ability to turn off in the absence of people and power up when someone enters.
When they power on, the screen could show artwork or family photos (the latter which Govil-Pai said is “very, very popular”.)
In fact she said features around photos that rolled out with the Google TV Streamer have had “huge uptake” and part of why “we’ve now decided that ‘always on’ is a big feature set for us.”
Per Govil-Pai, photos are the No. 1 non-video media use case on TVs, in part because people like to reminisce.
Bringing it back to conversational prompts with AI that can pull out specific memories, she gave two examples of how it could work on TVs: such as entering the room and a montage of a family’s kids from 10 years ago plays on the screen, or having friends over and saying “Can you show us photos of when we were all together in our college years?”
“We’re seeing enormous asks for those types of use cases,” she said, adding that Google is already launching it on phones and it’ll be a matter of time for TV.
While the automatic “always on” nature is something she expects to come later, Govil-Pai she envisions how after showcasing artwork, as a person moves closer to the TV it might pull up a hub mode showing things like their calendar for the day, current weather, or a news brief that they want to start the morning with.
“Those are the two big aspects that we’re leaning on for these next set of launches…an always on TV and one that comes with a far-field microphone.”
Separately, asked which features consumers have used on their smart TVs, Hub’s survey found 16% say they've displayed photos, 15% have used a screen-saver when the TV was off or not being watched, and 10% controlled a smart home device. And higher on the ranking, 23% said they’ve used their smart TV to check news, weather or traffic using non-video smart TV apps.
As mentioned, Google’s already done some work on the smart TV home hub front. Earlier integrations with the Home Hub team at Google for the Streamer device enable all Matter devices in the home to be controlled through the Google TV interface.
With video being the most natural integration, Govil-Pai gave an update. She said big use cases they’ve seen a lot of engagement with on the home hub front include showing who is at the front door and showing a baby camera, as well as non-video actions like turning on and off lights in different rooms or changing the thermostat.
“These are early days for Home, but we're seeing enormous uptake on it, which is why we believe TVs will be the center for it,” she said.
As for why Google keeps investing in TV devices?
According to Govil-Pai, it’s because the company believes TVs continue to be a very important part of daily life and engagement.
“We continue to see the engagement of users from three to five hours per day,” she said. “And this is time that they’re spending with their families in their homes, so that’s why Google continues to focus on TVs as an important area for us.”