The Roku TV companion app received a design overhaul and several new features with its latest update, the app’s creators revealed on Tuesday. Representatives of the Los Gatos-based company said that the Roku version 4.0 was designed to turn your Android phone into a versatile streaming companion as it allows you to quickly access most of its fundamental features. Apart from streamlining basic navigation, the latest Roku update also facilitates the process of browsing content. The update started rolling out on Tuesday and should already be available for download from the Google Play Store worldwide.
Roku 4.0 features a new navigation bar located on the bottom of the user interface which allows one-tap access to all available streaming channels, Roku TV remote controls, and the new What’s On tab. The latter also boasts a search icon that you can tap to start searching for available movies and TV shows. Additionally, the same icon is available on the top of the Channels tab. This design change means that accessing installed channels now only takes a single tap once you open the Roku app. Furthermore, tapping on a channel to start streaming it will now automatically bring up the Remote interface of the app. Coupled with the change detailed above, this new addition to Roku should significantly streamline the overall user experience of the app. The What’s On tab is another new feature designed to make discovering content quicker and easier than before, regardless of whether you’re interested in free or paid content.
The latest version of Roku also boasts a new Remote interface that looks more similar to the buttons on a physical Roku remote. The same interface now features a channels icon for quicker navigation. In overall, Roku 4.0 sounds like a significant upgrade over its predecessor as it allows users to spend less time fiddling with controls and more time actually watching content. The new update is just over 10MB in size and should work on most contemporary Android devices. Roku users seem mostly satisfied with this new app revision, as evidenced by numerous positive reviews on the Google Play Store. Refer to the gallery below to see some depictions of Roku 4.0 in action.
