Android Devs Can Now Start Optimizing Their Apps For Google TV

Last fall, Google made its first attempt to take over your living room with the launch of Google TV — a platform that merged the web with television content to create an experience promising to usher in a new era of convenience and interactivity.

Unfortunately it’s been mostly a dud thus far. The platform’s overly-complex user interface and content issues (some major channels specifically block access to their websites from Google TV devices) has led to weak adoption. Google is reportedly working to give the platform a major revamp, and there’s at least one more bright light in its future: soon, Google TV will support Android applications.

Now, Google’s been promising that the platform would be receiving Android support ever since it was first announced, but up until now there hasn’t been a strong indication as to when that’d actually happen (the most specific Google’s gotten has been “summer”). Today, we’re one big step closer to seeing that promise come fruition: Google has just released a preview version of a Google TV plug-in for the Android SDK.

This doesn’t mean that you can install Android apps yet. Rather, it means developers can start to tweak their existing Android apps for the so-called ’10 foot experience’, so that their apps will be ready once the Google TV update does ship to users.

From the Android blog:

These are still early days for Google TV, and this release is another step in providing developer tools for the big screen. While the number of apps available on TV will initially be small, we expect that through this early release of the add-on you’ll be able to bring optimized TV apps into the ecosystem more quickly. To start doing this, download the Google TV add-on today. Also, please continue to reach out to us on the Google TV Android Developer Community forum. We look forward to your contributions!