Google TV is something like a customization layer for Android TV: it changes the appearance of the menus and fundamentally the launcher, which gives priority to content over applications. If you want to try Google TVyou can do it for free and without complications on your computer with the help of the official Android emulator.
We tell you step by step how can you have Google TV on your PC and control it with the keyboard and mouse to test the system or directly consume content with the official applications for Android TV, instead of being relegated to the web applications of each streaming service.
Install Android Studio
To have Google TV on our PC we are going to use the official Android Studio emulator, which works really well. ob
Android Studio is the official Android programming IDE and it’s totally free. Even if you don’t have the slightest intention of programming anything, you can use it to take advantage of your emulator without prior knowledge. It all starts by downloading Android Studio from the official website. The download is quite heavy, almost 1 GB.
We have already told you several times about the installation process of Android Studio and the truth is that it is quite simple, because you only need press Next and accept the default options that are offered to you. The installation itself shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
Then it’s time to prepare the emulator
Now comes the hardest part, which is not difficult: preparing the Google TV emulator. First of all you will need to locate the icon to open the Device administrator from Android Studio, the place where you can create virtual devices. You will find it in the upper bar of the application: it is called Device Manager.
If this is the first time you have used Android Studio, the device manager will appear empty, so the first step is to press Create Device to start setting up your new virtual device.
In the window that opens, switch to TV category in the left column and then choose the TV profile that suits you best. They are all the same except for the resolution, so the middle option –Android TV (1080p)– is a good middle ground. Select one and press Next.
Now comes the part of “installing” a version of Android TV on your virtual device. Again, if your Android Studio is freshly installed, you will not have any Android TV images downloadedSo this is going to be the first step.
You choose which version you want to try, but if your intention is to try Google TV, the most important thing is to look at the Target column, to select a picture from Google TV instead of Android TV.
Of course, you will not be able to choose any image until it is downloaded. To download any of the displayed system images, you must press the arrow icon next to your namewhich opens a new popup window.
In this window you simply have to press Next and wait for the download to finish, which can take a while depending on the speed of your Internet connection. When finished, press the button finished.
This will take you back to the previous window, where you can now choose the image that is downloaded. after pressing Following you will find yourself with a few options for customize your virtual device with a name and little else.
To enjoy
With your virtual device created, all that remains is to boot it up. Your new virtual TV will appear in the device manager with the name you have assigned to it and you will find yourself a play button next to it. Click it to start the virtual machine.
In recent versions of Android Studio the emulator view is integrated in a panel within the interface of the app which makes it tiny and hard to see, but luckily it’s easy to fix.
It’s optional, but a good idea to click the gear icon on that panel and use the menu View mode > Window so that the emulator it will be shown in its own window instead of living inside Android Studio.
For the rest, all you have to do is wait for finish booting the system and you will have Google TV emulated on your computer. If you have a powerful PC, the system works really quickly and you can use it almost completely normally. If not, at least it will help you to see a little how it works with the respective patience.
You can control Google TV emulated on your computer with mouse and keyboard and the truth is that you will rarely have problems, although some applications work better if you navigate using the keyboard keys than with the mouse. In the top bar of the emulator you have buttons to
In this emulated Google TV you can Sign in with your Google account and install apps normally from Google Play, although you will find that some applications, such as Netflix, are not available. Technically you can force the installation by downloading the APK file on your computer and dragging it into the emulator window.
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