Google announces a redesigned Play Store and improved Assistant support on Android TV

At its I/O keynote yesterday, Google didn't have much to say about Android TV, but today the company announced a few improvements to the platform (via 9to5Google). One big area of improvement for Android TV is in content discovery, and Google it's working on ways to make it easier for publishers to highlight their content on Android TV.

Google is also redesigning the Play Store UI to make it easier to navigate and discover the content and apps available. In the demo, we also see the Amazon Prime Video app, which is coming soon as a result of a deal between the two companies, though it's not clear when it will be available.

The Play Store is also getting improvements to the purchase experience. For one thing, developers can streamline the process of installing and subscribing to a service. A new "Subscribe and install" option will allow users to set up a service with fewer steps and directly through the Play Store. Additionally, Google will let users start using a PIN for confirming purchases, which should be much more convenient to enter using a remote when compared to a traditional password.

Lastly, Google is making improvements to the capabilities of the Google Assistant on Android TV, adding support for live TV content. Essentially, you'll be able to ask the Assistant to start playing a live TV show, the same way you can ask it to buy a specific movie or show that's available on demand. Google says it's working with Philo to enable this functionality already, but other services will be able to use it.