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- Incoming
Following a minor facelift of the Play Store TV interface and the completely new Google TV UI, the regular Android TV experience is in for an overhaul. After announcing a new three-tabbed look for Android TVs earlier this month, Google's beginning to start updating devices.
Before and after.
The new interface looks strikingly similar to Google TV. Voice search and the Assistant remain in the top left corner, but the sidebar with Apps, Watch Next, and Play Movies & TV is completely gone. Instead, there are now three tabs at the top: Home, Discover, and Apps. The former mostly looks and feels like the old homescreen and consists of your favorite apps and channels, including the recently added recommendations carousel. Apps remains the place to go when you want to see all of your installed applications. Discover is all new to Android TV, though. Google explains that it "features personalized recommendations based on what you watch and what interests you, in addition to what’s trending on Google." The company says the recommendations are based on the apps and subscriptions you already have on your TV, so Discover quite obviously resembles the For You tab on Google TV.
Above: The new Android TV look. Below: The Google TV interface.
Back at the start of February, Google announced that the new software would be coming to Android TV devices in the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, and France, with more to follow further down the road. Now we're starting to see updates enabling this face lift arrive.
Users interested in getting an early look should sideload two APKs to their Android TV units: first Android TV Core Services 3.0.4, followed by Home 3.0.
Even with both of those installed, you probably won't see a change straight away, and users report that even after the new software is in place, it can take a little while before Android TV switches over to the new interface. So whether you're sideloading or just waiting for nature to take its course: patience is your friend here.
UPDATE: 2021/02/11 2:17pm PST BY STEPHEN SCHENCK
Incoming
Added details on the update's arrival and sideloading APKs.