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When it announced the new Chromecast, Google introduced its new Google TV interface layer as a great content discovery experience aimed at helping you find what to watch without worrying about the logistics of “where”. and the “how”. In many ways the promise is kept and we believe you won’t be disappointed with your $ 50 purchase at all. But if you don’t live alone and have kids, a roommate, or a partner with a different taste, the experience is far from ideal. Google TV is clearly designed for one user, from the Home screen to the Assistant and various other apps. You might think you can add multiple accounts, but these only work for certain limited services and don’t affect the overall interface. This restriction is not new: it has been around since the inception of Android TV and has not yet been removed, unfortunately.
Multiple accounts but not multiple profiles
Opening the Google TV side panel lets you experience what an account switcher looks like in an Apple TV-like user interface. In reality, this is only an account indicator, as you cannot switch between different logged in users. You are free to add as many email addresses as you want, none of them really matter to the main experience. (They are only available when signing into apps, which I’ll cover later.)
Profile indicator and multi-account screen.
The first connected user is the only one who can choose the streaming services whose content and recommendations they want to see, pay for their purchases (rental and purchase) and create a link in their Google Assistant.
The first connected account has access to all these parameters.
All secondary users do not have access to any of these settings. This means your partner can’t buy things with their own credit card, your kid can talk to your assistant (although, obviously, without Voice Match compatibility, they can’t access personal results), and your roommate can’t. may not have their streaming services linked to the home screen.
Other accounts get nada.
The end result is a single profile home screen, perfect for one, unnecessary for many. the For you the tab is for the single “you”, the Library The tab is linked to your Google Account only, and the Wish List is synced with your Google Account, so only you can edit or access it from a phone or the web. If your partner or roommate wants to watch movies or shows they rented from Google with their own account, they’re out of luck. The only workaround is to start playback on their phone and stream it to the TV.
Even something as simple as the app’s icon order isn’t customizable by user, for example, if you love Netflix but don’t care about Hulu but someone else has the opposite preference, you both must agree to keep these two icons. in the main line of the app for easy access.
This is my library, my wish list. My husband does not have access to his purchases or his wish list.
Granted, in some households this may not be a problem. It’s not a big hurdle in mine because my husband and I share a very similar taste when it comes to entertainment content, but I can easily imagine that it would be less than ideal if we had kids or likes. different, which is the case for many people living under the same roof.
Single-user preferences and game progress
Starting from the Home screen, almost everything else in Android TV and the Google TV layer at the top is still aimed at single users. If I change a certain setting, it is changed for everyone and there are no preferences per profile. The same goes for the achievements and progress of Google Play Games. One account is supported, so the others can still play, but their progress will be synchronized with the same account.
Play Games sync activity is limited to one account.
Some limitations in other Google apps
Other apps created by Google are a bit more lenient in supporting multiple users, but still do it a bit awkwardly. The Play Store allows you to easily switch accounts to download purchases or make new ones, but you need to know how to get to the Play Store in the first place as there is no icon to launch it. (Tip: Say “Ok Google, open Play Store”, this is the fastest way.)
The Play Store account switcher, if you know how to access it.
YouTube is a bit more boring about it. You must log out of the current user / profile to log in to another. Even if you have multiple channels / profiles on YouTube under the same email address, you cannot switch between them without signing out. It’s tedious and unnecessary, and I doubt anyone will care if they just want to find a video (i.e. they’re not interested in accessing their own subscriptions or lists.) Thus, the main account holder on Android TV ends up with videos of his story that he has never really watched and recommendations that do not interest him.
You must sign out before you can sign in to another user or channel. Very few will bother to do so.
Third-party apps to the rescue
The only respite you get when using Google TV is when you jump into third-party apps. Most of them have learned to overcome this single-user platform-wide limitation by providing easy switching between multiple profiles or accounts in their apps. Spotify, Plex, Netflix, Hulu, and many other streaming services do this, so each household member can enjoy their own content without disturbing everyone’s story or recommendations.
Oh, look over there, different profiles ?! What kind of black magic is this ?!
For single-user households or small households with few members in a similar age group and sharing similar tastes, Google TV provides a neat and streamlined discovery and consumption interface. But custom the content cannot be that, by definition, if it affects a person’s account but takes into account the comments of many users in the household. Your partner, kid or roommate should have their own profile with customizable settings, preferences, history, recommendations, wishlists, purchases, game progress, assistant, etc. Third-party apps with support for multiple users or multiple profiles may make things more tolerable for some, but they’re not a real solution to the bigger problem.
In an age when more people stay indoors and watch content on their own TVs than ever before, Google must find a way to make the experience more enjoyable for everyone, and there’s nothing stopping it from doing so when. Apple TV, PlayStation, and Xbox have already solved this.
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