TV devices offer many entertainment options with thousands of choices from apps and related content services. At the same time, most users prefer using a TV with the least amount of input possible. With so many choices available, your app should provide quick and easy paths for users to discover and enjoy your content.
You can help users discover your content through recommendations on the home screen, making your app searchable, and integrating your content with the Google Assistant. This topic provides an overview of each of these areas and links out to related topics and resources for more information.
Recommend content on the home screen
The Android TV home screen displays recommended content using channels and programs. Channels are displayed as individual rows on the home screen, with cards that display all of the available programs for that channel.
To learn more, see Recommend content on the home screen.
Make your app searchable
Android TV uses the Android search interface to retrieve content data from installed apps and deliver search results to the user. Your app's content data can be included with these results, to give the user instant access to the content in your app.
To learn more, see Make TV apps searchable.
Integrate with the Google Assistant
Your app can integrate with the Google Assistant on Android TV by implementing search and playback controls. For a high level overview, read this post on the Android Developers blog.
Search
The Google Assistant can query your app if you make your app searchable.
Note that the deeplink you provide to the Google Assistant should either be a
universal link or have the android-app:// scheme.
Playback Controls
The Google Assistant on Android TV uses a media session to send commands to your app.
If you are using ExoPlayer, you can integrate
with the Google Assistant easily using a MediaSessionConnector,
which is an extension for ExoPlayer. To learn more, read this post on the Android Developers blog.
Additional resources
To learn more about helping users find content on Android TV, see the following additional resources.