The beauty of YouTube is that it’s available just about anywhere. You can find an app on nearly any platform, whether that be gaming consoles, Android, the Amazon Fire tablets, ChromeOS, and even iOS. Android TV devices are the newest platform to give users access to YouTube, and now the YouTube for Android TV app has been published on the Play Store so that anyone who already has a device running Android TV, whether that be the Nexus Player or the ADT-1 unit, can update the YouTube app just like any other application. YouTube was already available on Android TV of course, but before having published the official app to the Play Store updating the app would only have been possible when Google pushed out a firmware upgrade to those devices. Now users can update the app as updates are pushed out from Google to the Play Store.
The update doesn’t add a huge list of new features or upgrades, it does however bring in a couple of handy changes according to the what’s new section of the app listing. The Play Store states that home screen recommendations have been added in. Also part of the YouTube for Android TV update, is a system wide search integration making it possible for users to have YouTube video results fed to them at any point no matter where they are in the system or on what screen they’re searching. Having this capability isn’t a necessity, but it sure makes things more convenient if you suddenly decide you want to look for a YouTube video but don’t want to back out of whatever you’re already doing from any other menu.
If you already have either the ADT-1 or the Nexus Player hooked up to a TV in your home, you should see the update available in the Play Store and have the ability to download it. On another note, if you have the Nexus Player already in hand, how are you liking it so far and how do you like the two new listed features of the update? Are you finding it easier to get video search results? Share your thoughts.