Google TV to Explore Possible Fitness, Smart Home Applications, and More in 2022

Google TV may be getting additional feature sets throughout the year. These may include the broaching of fitness and smart home control.

In an interview with Protocol, Google TV’s director of product management Rob Caruso discussed the avenues the company is looking to explore for its TV system during 2022. One area of interest, as Caruso explains, is smart home control. The director has said that recent changes to Android may be used as a blueprint.

In addition, Caruso states that “fitness is another big area of exploration” for the company in 2022. Without going into too many specifics, possible integration of Google Fit and Fitbit were brought up. Though, third-party services could very well be integrated into the Google TV OS as well.

Another focus is expanding the video communication options on Google TV. Caruso has indicated that Google is looking at Zoom as a possible candidate for developing further video conferencing software in the living room. Google’s Duo service launched on Android TV in 2022 and Zoom could be the first to break ground on an expansion.

While not a specific addition, Caruso touched on the current hurdles Netflix faces on Google TV. There are currently some core features that Netflix subscribers can’t take advantage of. Examples of this include the inability to add Netflix content to Google TV’s watchlist. Caruso hopes that Google can provide ” improvements and innovations in the coming months with not just Netflix, but with many partners.”

Google TV expanded into Canada late last year. At the time, Google TV launched in 14 additional countries as well as added new features such as the virtual remote control. Google TV is now competing for attention alongside the more popular Android TV as well as other more direct competitors like Apple TV.

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