If you have a good number of smart devices in your house, you probably want to control them from anywhere, even from the TV. It is possible to manage your smart devices like lights and speakers of a TV with Android TVin two ways.
We explain how to turn your smart lights on and off, activate the robot vacuum cleaner or stop music playback on Google Home from a TV with Android TV and with two different methodseach with its advantages and disadvantages.
The easy way, by voice
The easiest way to turn on a smart bulb from the TV is to use the Google Assistant, as long as your TV or its remote has a built-in microphone, which is normal. Basically all you have to do is ask them the same way you would with the Google Assistant on mobilementioning the name of the device and what you want to do.
For example, a “Turn on the light in the living room” or “Turn on the vacuum cleaner” should work, although it can be a little frustrating because the assistant is sometimes a little hard of hearing and does not understand us well. It can also be a problem if we are in a very noisy environment, although the positive part is that you don’t need to mess anything with the tv.
The easiest way, with the Google Home app
The less easy way is to use the same home automation app we use on mobile, Google Home. Officially Google Home is not available for TVs, but the application adapts correctly to the large format of the television and it works quite well. The biggest challenge is, as always, getting it on TV.
There are many methods to install apps on Android TV. from your APK, and anyone would. All you need is to download the Google Home APK and transfer them to the TV with an app like Send Files to TV (or download it directly to the TV with a web browser that allows it. The app installs smoothly and the latest versions supports Android 8.0 and above.
After installing the application, all you have to do is make sure that you are using the same Google account than the one you have on your mobile and in which the devices are configured. The setup wizard itself is quite simple and you just need to press Next a couple of times.
With everything, you will see on TV the same Google Home control panel that you have on your mobile, with all the buttons to activate this and that. The app lets you navigate through it with the TV remote, although it has the added difficulty that does not highlight the active buttonso it can complicate something to know what you press on.
It won’t be a problem if you have a pointer remote, with which you can press buttons at will, or if you connect a mouse to the TV via USB. If you don’t meet any of these conditions, you can still use it using your imagination to “guess” which button is currently selected.
Another problem with installing the Google Home app is that it won’t appear in the app list because it’s not officially prepared for Android TV. This has an easy fix: you can use Sideload Launcher or just open the apps section of settings, go to Google Home details and open it from there.
