Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Apple TV app comes to Chromecast with Google TV

By

Chromecast with Google TV users can add the Apple TV app to their devices from the Google Play Store starting today. This gives Apple yet another device that can run its curated entertainment experience, as well as its subscription streaming service, Apple TV+. The Apple TV app is already available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and several smart TV platforms from brands like LG and Samsung.

What’s unusual about the Chromecast with Google TV announcement is that it appears to create a Russian Matryoshka doll effect in terms of the user experience. Both Google TV and the Apple TV app are designed to be holistic streaming experiences that can bring all of your content into one place, with suggestions curated by an algorithm. By adding the Apple TV app to Google TV, users will effectively be putting a curated experience inside a curated experience.

Recommended Videos

Despite this weird meta-curation situation, Google says that:

Related

With Google TV in the U.S., you can browse Apple Originals in your personalized recommendations and search results. And with Google Assistant, you can also use your voice to ask Google to open the Apple TV app or play an Apple Original title. If you aren’t ready to watch right away, you can add Apple Originals to your Watchlist for later.

Making the Apple TV app available on Google-controlled devices (Google says that other Android TV-based products will be getting the app in the future) is yet another reason why Apple’s own streaming media player (awkwardly also called Apple TV) might not be around for much longer.

At just $50, the Chromecast with Google TV is an amazing device, with a slick and responsive interface, as well as support for 4K resolution at 60Hz, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos. When you compare that to the Apple TV 4K, which costs $180 for the 32GB version, it’s hard to justify Apple’s steep price premium.

Granted, there are still a few features that are exclusive to the Apple TV streamer, like Apple Fitness+ and Apple Arcade, but it’s getting harder to see these as strong reasons to stick with Apple’s box, especially when the company has licensed its AirPlay and HomeKit technologies to an increasing number of third parties.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like…
Apple TV’s multiview feature now out of beta and live for all
Apple TV's multiview feature as seen with Friday Night Baseball.

After spending a few weeks in beta form, Apple TV's multiview feature is now live for everyone for Major League Soccer matches and Friday Night Baseball games.

The Apple TV app now has a multiview feature on Apple TV hardware running the tvOS 16.5 beta. Phil Nickinson/Digital Trends

Read more
Hulu content is coming to Disney+ in a single app, with a higher ad-free price
App icons for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN.

The complicated scheme that is the Disney family of streaming services is going to get a little more complicated. Disney CEO Bob Iger, during the company's second-quarter earnings call, announced that Disney is going to create a "one-app experience" in the U.S., bringing Hulu content into the main Disney+ app.

It's also going to increase the price of its ad-free plan, which currently stands at $11 a month.

Read more
Apple TV has quietly been on board the FAST train all this time
Streaming apps that can be connected to Apple TV.

Apple TV, insofar as the name is concerned, is a bit of a mess. It's hardware — the Apple TV 4K box is still the best streaming hardware you can buy. It's a streaming service unto itself — Apple TV+ is Apple's take on HBO. And its software — tvOS technically is the name of the operating system, but there's also a "TV" app ... on Apple TV.

The Apple TV app itself also is, shall we say, a bit busy. It's home not just to Apple TV+, but also to exclusive sports like MLS Season Pass and Friday Night Baseball. And if you've ever bought a movie or show from Apple, you'll find them there, too. And if you're signed in to another streaming app that plays nice with Apple's TV app — and there are a lot of them — you'll find that content in there, too.

Read more