If you think your Google TV homescreen is looking a little different, you’re not going mad.
Beginning last week (via 9to5Google), Google has been making its new redesign available to users. This week, owners of tech from brands such as TCL and Walmart Onn have seen the update go live. This is one of the biggest changes to the homepage since the OS rebranded in 2020.
The main changes of the redesign are to the top navigation bar, and users who’ve commented online seem quite unhappy with one major alteration: the Library tab has been removed.
It means there isn’t a quick navigation option on the main page for accessing films and TV shows you’ve downloaded. Instead, you’ll need to click on the profile picture (located on the left of the screen) to pull up a drop-down menu, which includes access to the Library, along with Watchlist, Your Services and Content Services.
In the new top menu, you’ll now find that the For You tab has been renamed as Home, which sits alongside the Live and Apps tabs. Meanwhile, Settings and Screensaver options are in a second box.
You can see the redesign below, in a screengrab from an advert showing off Gemini AI features on the TV OS:
And for reference, this is what the old (or current, depending on your model) homepage looked like – complete with the Library tab. Note that in the US, the Live tab was on this bar previously, too.
Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry
These changes are confirmed to be rolling out across the US, but we’ve not yet heard about them in other countries. On Tech Advisor’s Google TV Streamer unit in the UK, the old home screen layout still appears, even after an update.
As this new layout hasn’t been officially announced by Google beyond being present in some adverts, there’s a chance that the company may still be tweaking and finalising it over the next few weeks.
Related articles
