I think that probably everyone here have already seen the presentation of the new launcher, so I would like to open a discussion about it.
What do You think is an improvement compared to the old Leanback Launcher? What changes do You disapprove? What features would You like to see in the final version? How can new launcher change the way You use your Android TV? and the biggest question of all - do You think that those changes are the steps in the right direction?
So it looks to me like the 2nd to the top row (the one below the app row) is a clone of Plex's "On Deck", which is what I've always wanted. It has shows you've unfinished, and puts what episode is next right there. That's awesome and will be way better than what we have now.
The thing I'm concerned about is how apps will implement this. We still didn't get apps like Netflix to put stuff in the existing row, or have the OTT apps integrate with LiveTV, etc. More content rows sound great, but at the same time I don't want to be spammed with crap. In the current launcher I have to turn off YouTube on the recommendations row because it decides to put trending things from YouTube on the row instead of the videos I'm subscribed to or care about. They literally have all my playback history and still can't get it right.
A solution to this would be more machine learning/AI behavior in the launcher, bear with me here:
For example, if I am clicking on NBA games in the launcher all month, then be smart enough to know I care about the NBA and put the next game the next day right up top. Every day I have to click deep into Vue to get what I want when it should know this by now. Now, I don't expect Sony to figure this out or care, but that's something YoutubeTV could do. You know that the 3rd parties won't bother doing this, but like if I am watching Star Trek on Netflix then be smart enough to recommend be the new Star Trek if I have CBS All Access installed. Things like that.
As a counter example of how to do it wrong at the FireTV. It has tried to make me watch Bosch for two years. It's always there on my home screen, I can't get rid of it. If I haven't clicked on the shit for two years, then be smart enough to mix it up until you find shit I like, then use that to train the algorithm.
It seems clear to me that this is the way forward if you look at everything around the google assistant that they talked about at IO, the tricky part is all the content providers want to be silos, they don't want the computer to be in control of what we watch, they want us to watch Bosch or whatever "featured content" they spent millions on.
For people that have only used the launcher on their Nexus Player and not watched the presentation or demo I highly recommend you do.
I disliked the launcher when I used it but once you see it with content and backgrounds it looks much better and starts to makes sense.
What I’m afraid is that there will be only 6 apps that can be displayed as favourites with games being completely buried. That’s not enough – I’d rather see much wider row of favourites. Also I have mixed feelings about notifications – I’m afraid that this feature is going to be used to spam us with ads. With that being said I believe that this launcher is a great way to make users, content providers and oems more happy.
I don't like that the favorites row is 6 apps only, it should be unlimited so it can be as much as the user stars/marks as favorite - whether that be just one app or all (not just whatever your first 6 positioned apps are - the way it is now). It will lead to normal people thinking those 6 apps are all they can use, it adds more user actions to accessing legitimate/wanted leanback apps (instead of just keep scrolling to app and hit it - it's now scroll to app draw icon and hit that, then scroll to app in sub menu and hit it) - and all that will lead to declined engagement of those apps residing in the draw (bad for both users and devs of those apps). Some of us just happen to have more than 6 favorite apps too.
I like the notification channels and everything else basically. And they and their rows can be turned off and/or positions reordered anyway.
I am excited about it. My recommendations row in the current launcher is pretty much a joke and never useful.
Concerned about how Live Channels are going to work, though.
I think it's a promising change. It certainly exposes a lot more content to the user, which will probably help adoption. It kind of implements the "notification channels" where content providers can have multiple rows of content instead of lumping everything to recommendations. The final version, with inline clips and background changes, will look really nice.
This is a pretty big change in the consumption model: content first and downplaying apps a lot. I am concerned with how this may affect games (since they aren't media apps), Live Channels (since it's less exposed), and utility apps (since they'll be shoved far away).
The OS now supports notifications, as it has a notification drawer, and I am not sure what will populate it.
But I think this new launcher, combined with Assistant, will make a very sweet experience.
The idea may be okay but the fact is very few Android TV apps give relevant recommendations. Youtube still only offers "popular" and "trending" results from what they showed off rather than content from the channels you subscribe to. ESPN doesn't have a way to narrow recommendations to a certain set of favorite teams and instead just shows random clips. Plex is the only one I can see really making use of the new API and I would rather just go into the app than have it as the only "channel" I use. Until recommendations make make sense this is just more of a bad thing, it was a weak point of the launcher before and now it is the focal point of the entire home screen.
Google PlayStore app is not very accessible which is disappointing.
Hopefully but very unlikely Amazon will implement this.
Haven't looked much at it, but the biggest problem for me is lack of customization.
I turn off recommendations because I know what I like, but it still shows a blank space. That space should be gone if off. I hopefully allows it to be turned off too.
I want wallpaper choice
Let it scroll down the app list with infinite rows and X columns. Not that dumb 2 rows that oddly scroll left and right
A finished Playstore to actually has all the apps/categories.
Have the shield TV 2017 and 2016 Sony smart TV and don't have it . You guys sideload it or what ?
Google Assistant will make or break this. If it doesn't work with all apps it will be a killer to ATV.
I need to spend time with it but I like the direction.
It adds a favorites row. Seriously how much time do people spend at the home page? If you don't like all the channels and just want to get in to your apps, you can do so via the favorites.
The channels are a huge improvement over the current recommendations.
I love the watch next row. It's like the on deck bar for Plex but...now applied to all available content.
I really hope developers jump on this stuff.