#TechBytes: These new features are coming to your Android TV
What's the story
Smart TVs and media streaming devices are all the rage these days, thanks to Google's Android TV. The platform hosts more than 7,000+ applications designed for the big screen and offers handy features like voice search with Google Assistant and Chromecast. Now, to make this experience better than ever, the company is adding new capabilities to the package. Let's take a look at them.
Feature #1
Google Play Instant to try apps
Firstly, the internet giant is bringing support for Google Play Instant, a feature that will let you try apps instantly on your Android TV by loading a small part of them. The capability will help you judge a heavy new app or game on the Play Store, without wasting time, data, and storage space on installing it completely.
Feature #2
PIN purchases on Google Play
Google is bringing support for a 4-digit PIN to make purchases simpler on the Google Play Store. The feature, although small, will save you from the trouble of entering the full password for your account every time you choose to buy some content from the Google-owned marketplace. Notably, the company is also working on a common 'subscribe and install' button for Play Store apps.
Feature #3
Gboard TV is also on the way
The next big change is coming in the form of Gboard TV, the TV-specific version of Google's keyboard. Gboard TV will replace the current keyboard's A-Z broad layout with a QWERTY keypad, and bring easy typing features like speech-to-text, predictive typing. Plus, it could be aligned to the left, center, or right side of the screen and used in over two dozen languages.
Feature #4
Updates for gamers
If you like playing games on your Android TV, Google has some good news for you, too. The company is bringing a low latency mode, which will let developers configure their games to automatically disable post-processing when running in full screen. This will reduce the latency for that particular app, allowing it to run more smoothly.