[Update: Wider rollout] Google is finally letting users initiate Android TV app installs from their phones

Update (12/03/2021 @ 03:44 ET): The new device drop-down menu on the Install button is now available widely. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on November 15, 2021, is preserved below.

At I/O 2021 in May, Google announced a new feature to make finding and installing apps on Wear OS devices much easier. The feature added a drop-down menu to the Install button on the Google Play Store, giving users the option to install an app on their Wear OS smartwatch right from their phone. The company is now rolling out a similar solution for Android TV devices, making it easy for users to install apps on the TV from their phone.

Currently, if you want to install an app on your Android TV, you have to open up the Play Store on the TV itself to install the app. While you can install an app on your Android TV from the web version of the Play Store, you can’t do so from your phone. But according to Reddit user r/avigi, Google is finally rolling out this feature to some users.

(Screenshot: u/avigi)

As you can see in the attached screenshot, the Install button in the latest version of the Google Play Store has a drop-down menu. Tapping on it shows a list of available devices, including the Android TV connected to your account. You can tap on the checkbox next to your Android TV and tap on the Install button to get the app on your Android TV.

The new feature isn’t widely available at the moment, and it seems to be rolling out via a server-side update. It doesn’t appear on any of our devices running the latest Google Play Store update. However, comments on the Reddit post linked above reveal that it is available for some users. While Google hasn’t released an official statement on the rollout, we expect the feature to show up for more users in the coming days. We’ll make sure to let you know as soon as we learn more.

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Update: The new drop-down menu is now available for more users

Recent reports suggest that the new drop-down device menu on the Google Play Store ‘Install’ button is now available widely. It’s available on all my phones on the Play Store listings for apps that are compatible with my Android TV.

If you haven’t received the feature yet, you can try manually updating the Google Play Store on your device. You might have to wait a few more days if the feature still doesn’t show up after installing the latest Play Store update.

The post [Update: Wider rollout] Google is finally letting users initiate Android TV app installs from their phones appeared first on xda-developers.

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