AI Search
Late last year, Google began rolling out Gemini to Google TV devices, including its own Google TV Streamer, Walmart’s onn 4K Pro, and smart TVs from brands like Hisense and TCL. Now, at CES 2026, Google has announced its first major update coming to Gemini for Google TV, adding several new features.
The standout addition is the ability to change your TV’s settings using natural voice commands. You can say things like “the screen is too dim” to bump up the brightness, or “the dialogue is lost” to adjust your TV’s audio settings — all without leaving whatever show or movie you’re watching. In other words, once this update rolls out, you won’t need to dig through menus to find the setting you’re looking for; you can just ask Gemini to handle it for you.
Google is also updating Gemini for Google TV with what it calls a new “visually rich framework.” Gemini’s responses will now adapt to your questions using imagery, videos, and real-time sports updates. For more complex queries, Gemini will perform deeper dives, delivering narrated, interactive overviews that Google says are “simplified for the whole family.”
As for when this update is coming, Google didn’t specify an exact release date, but it did say it will roll out to select TCL TVs first, followed by other Google TV devices, presumably that means the Google TV Streamer, in the coming months. Google also announced that Gemini will debut on Google TV projectors soon, but didn’t provide a timeline.
Beyond being able to search and adjust settings on your TV and deliver more visually rich responses, Gemini on Google TV will also soon be able to search your Google Photos library directly on your TV to find specific people or moments.
For example, if you’re sitting with family or friends and want to pull up a moment from a recent holiday quickly, you’ll be able to do so with a natural voice command, and Gemini will surface it from your Google Photos library. Google is also bringing Photo Remix to Google TV, which lets you apply “artistic styles” to your photos and “transform memories into cinematic, immersive slideshows.”
Gemini only began rolling out to Google’s own Google TV Streamer last November as a replacement for the old Google Assistant, so seeing such a sizable update arrive so quickly is welcome.
Nano Banana, Google’s somewhat controversial AI video-generation tool, is also coming to Gemini for Google TV with this update. According to Google, it will let you reimagine your personal photos or create original media directly on your TV.
Gemini only began rolling out to Google’s own Google TV Streamer last November as a replacement for the old Google Assistant, so seeing such a sizable update arrive so quickly is welcome. That said, while some of these features genuinely seem worthwhile — like adjusting TV settings with your voice or getting richer visual responses to questions — others raise a few eyebrows. AI video generation on Google TV with Nano Banana, in particular, feels unnecessary to me, and I’m not convinced many people want to do that on their TV instead of a smartphone or PC.
Either way, Google’s big Gemini update for Google TV is expected to roll out in the coming months, and it’ll be interesting to see these features in action and how well they actually work.
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