Nicolas Van Dyck likes adventure movies, while his wife Chantal is more into crime and drama. His kids, ages 11 and 13, like superheroes and animated films. 

“We’re a family of movie lovers,” Van Dyck says. “But between our preferences and all of the streaming platforms, it can get overwhelming.”

That’s why, when the Van Dycks turn on their Google TV Streamer,¹ the first place they go is the homepage, which lists personalized recommendations based on their watch history. These suggestions help speed up the time it takes to find something to watch, letting the family settle into a movie faster.

When one of the Van Dyck kids recently heard about a popular new superhero movie from friends at school, he wanted to check it out. Of course, nothing ruins a party like spending time searching for a movie. And with two young kids itching to check out the latest superhero flick, time is of the essence. 

Rather than looking through each streaming service individually, Nicolas searches for the show on Google TV. Google checks availability across all of their streaming services² and finds the app where the show is available, helping save time and get the movie started. 

“You can just type in the name of the show you want to watch and it tells you which app you can watch it on,” he says.

And since the device connects with your Google Account, you don’t have to be in front of your TV to add things to your watchlist.² When you search for a film or series in a Google web search or on the Google TV app, you can click the bookmark icon to save it to your Google TV Streamer (4K) watchlist. But if you are in front of the television, you can search with your voice by pressing the Google Assistant button on your remote control.^3,4

Gideon Leveson had a similar problem to the Van Dycks. “We’ll scroll through one app and we won’t find anything. Then we’ll go and scroll through another, and another,” Leveson says. When his family added Chromecast with Google TV, they were able to see movies and shows from a variety of apps pulled onto one home screen, so they could find something to watch without jumping from app to app.²

Leveson also recently tried out Google TV’s recommendations page after seeing his daughter use it to find a movie. “When everything is aggregated, it definitely speeds up the process,” he notes.

The Google TV Streamer (4K) also allows you to see who’s at your front door or change the temperature, right from the couch, by connecting other Nest devices such as a Nest doorbell or thermostat. Simply use your voice remote to say which device you want to stream the live feed from. For example, just say “show me the front door camera” to see your doorbell feed.^5,6 You can also do this through other Google Assistant-enabled devices. Use your Nest speaker or display and say, “Hey Google, show me the front door camera on my TV.”

For Paul and Melanie Adamson, searching for a movie used to take up a significant amount of their time. They’d curl up on the couch with their two dogs, Leia and Chewie, and a bowl of popcorn – and start searching.

“I’d go into one of the streaming services and scroll for 20 minutes or so until we found something that wasn’t objectionable,” says Paul Adamson. “There was too much to choose from – I’d lose interest while we were searching for something to watch.”

Then the Adamsons decided to get Chromecast with Google TV. Paul added movies to his watchlist³ and adjusted his content preferences to include genres like science fiction and action. With this information, Google TV can make better suggestions about what he may be interested in watching. 

“The more I watch, the more relevant hits I see in the suggestions on the main page,” he says.

The Adamsons like their Google TV streaming device so much that they purchased another one for Paul’s parents. The intuitive interface meant that they were able to catch on quickly. Now when Melanie and Paul go over to visit, his parents have their own recommendations queued up, ready for a great movie night.