Google TV may be the latest unnecessary and confusing rebranding to come out of Google, but it could bring a lot more to the table than the regular Android TV experience. According to an interview conducted by Protocol (via Android Authority), the platform could get smart home and fitness integration as early as this year.

In a conversation with Rob Caruso, Google TV Director of Product Management, Protocol found out which other capabilities the company wants to bring to Google TV and the big screen in your living room. Google would like to introduce better support for smart home controls, with Caruso pointing at how Android now integrates home controls right on the lockscreen.

Another area that could see movement is fitness, with Google exploring the possibility of adding both its first-party Fitbit and Google Fit services as well as hooks for third parties interested in the platform. There’s also the possibility that we might see more video-conferencing software on Google TV, following the launch of Duo. Caruso says Zoom could be a possible candidate.

Google is also working on getting more programs in Google TV’s selection of free live TV channels. Caruso sees these as a crucial part of Google TV’s experience out of the box, giving new owners a broad selection of content at their disposal even when they don’t subscribe to any streaming services.

Caruso also talked about some other aspects of Google TV. For one, the company is growing its footprint around the world, with more than 250 device partners. Most of them are running devices using Android TV, not Google TV (which is technically a launcher on top of Android TV), but Google would eventually prefer to steer partners towards the full Google-ified experience. Android TV still isn’t going anywhere, though.

For another, Caruso explained how it wants to work with content providers going forward, and is hoping to see improvements with some companies that have so far not supported Google TV’s universal search and watchlist, like Netflix. Google is also still in the process of finding the right balance between in-app features and system-wide capabilities. “Not everything at the app level necessarily should be brought to the system, whereas everything at the system level shouldn't necessarily be an app-level feature,” Caruso is cited saying.

Caruso didn’t provide concrete dates for launching any of these features, but he did tell Protocol that the company would hopefully be “bringing out at some point later this year,” so we might not have to wait too terribly long for progress.