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This story was originally published and last update .
Google TV is the name of the brand new interface that Google introduced with the latest Chromecast last year. The home screen layout has been focused on discovering content that’s relevant to you, with access to your apps and settings in a secondary pane of the UI – but there’s no way appropriate to access full Play Store on the Chromecast with Google TV. At least, not easy. But the Play Store is there – you just need to use one of the few simple tricks to get there.
While this tutorial focuses on the Play Store, you can also apply the same steps for two other apps that are preinstalled on the Chromecast with Google TV but not easily accessible: Google Play Games and Google Play Movies & TV.
Why accessing the full Play Store is important
The applications the tab on Google TV is enough to launch the apps and games you have installed and to discover new ones to try. You can even use voice search to search for specific apps. But that’s where the interface ends. If you want to manage your existing apps, manually check for updates, install them, and change settings, you need to go to the full Play Store.
The Play Store app has tabs to browse apps and games, but also an appropriate settings menu where you can manage and update the ones you have installed, change accounts to retrieve apps that your partner or roommate purchased and modify some parameters concerning the automatic function. updates, payment methods, parental controls, etc.
While all of this might be trivial for most Chromecast users, a lot of us still like to have access and control these features, and this is where opening the Play Store app matters.
Method 1: Google Assistant
The easiest way to access the Play Store on the Chromecast with Google TV is to simply press the Assistant button on the remote and say “Play Store.”
The wizard will open the Play Store for you. It really is that easy.
Method 2: app settings
The second method is a bit more complex, but will come in handy if you don’t want to speak out loud, or if you’d rather never use Assistant. Open the side panel of your Chromecast, then head to Settings> Apps> See all apps> Show system apps> Google Play Store> Open. The steps are described in the screenshots below.
Method 3: button mapping
This third method will require a bit of setup, but once it’s done, you’ll have one-button access to the Play Store whenever you want. First, you will need to download Button Mapper and follow the steps in our previous tutorial to install it and give it the permissions it needs.
When it’s done, open Button Mapper and choose the button on the remote you want to use to launch the Play Store. In the screenshots below, I chose the home button, but only when it’s double-tapped. To configure it, select Home button> Double tap, and in the pop-up window, go to Applications in the drop-down list and search for the Play Store. The steps are described below.
Out of all these methods, button mapping works best for me. I just do the button combo whenever I need to access the full Play Store app and it launches, without talking to the assistant or diving six levels into the submenus.
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