Android TVs are quite popular these days, bringing together the best of both worlds, from live streaming to your favorite TV shows. It looks like Google is also putting a lot of effort into making watching TV and switching between devices even easier, by integrating some of the features we’ve seen before on Android phones. Previously, by logging into your Google account on any browser, you could go to the Google Play Store and install apps through the browser itself, rather than switching to your phone. Now something similar has appeared for Android TV. However, this appears to be available to a limited number of users who use the same Google account on their Android TV and their phones.
Redditor u/avigi was the first to notice this new feature and posted it. It is clearly seen that in the Google Play Store, users can now select an application to install on Android TV. This is what users really need. As mentioned earlier, it was possible to install apps on Android smartphones using browsers, and the same mechanism works for WearOS apps. But this is the first time Google is allowing remote installation of apps on Android TV via Android smartphones.
Another Reddit user u/kevjs1982 shared some more screenshots on Imgur that explain how this new feature works. When the application is installed on all devices, users will find out about it just below the “Uninstall”and “Open”buttons. If it is only installed on an Android TV device, the Google Play Store will show it on the phone, allowing the user to also install the app on their phone.
Finally, if the app is only installed on the phone and not on the Android TV device, an Install button will appear to the right of the device.
However, it looks like it’s a server update from Google and until it reaches your phone, you can’t get this great feature on your phone. It may take some time to roll it out to all users, but once it does, it can be very beneficial for everyone. Such a feature could also be useful if Google decides to implement it for phones. This can save time and effort for many people who use multiple phones.