Google has rolled out new features on its smart TVs powered by Android and running the Google TV interface, including a dedicated soccer portal that allows fans of the game to find out where live events are playing.
The timing of the new soccer portal coincides with the start of the FIFA World Cup men’s soccer tournament, which kicked off in Mexico on Thursday and will be played across North America through mid-July.
The soccer portal on Google TV will aggregate live matches from the FIFA World Cup tournament and other professional soccer leagues, with information about where to stream live games across services like YouTube TV, Fox One and Fox-owned free service Tubi.
Streamers can jump right into live matches in progress through the menu and view listings for upcoming matches as well. Highlights from games will be available after they conclude, and post-game content will also include team analysis and post-match breakdowns.
The new menu is available via the sports topic on all Google TV platforms.
Additionally, Google is starting to roll out new features powered by its artificial intelligence assistant Gemini on some higher-end TVs, including the ability to control the settings of those devices using the voice remote.
That feature is now available on TCL TVs with Android 14 or newer, and will be exclusive to that brand for at least two months, according to a report from 9to5Google. From the voice remote, a streamer can use natural language prompts to tell Gemini that a picture being displayed is too dark or to adjust audio and video settings, among other issues. Streamers can also tell Gemini to open specific menus, instead of having to look through various settings.
