It’s now official, future televisions running Google TV will offer a remote control with a brand new button. On the other hand, the first device to benefit will not be the next Chromecast, as previously announced.
For several years, it has been rumored that Google is preparing to introduce a new button on Google TV remote controls. Whether internal documents or lines of code, this famous “magic button” has appeared numerous times. A few days ago, the latter resurfaced during a leak mentioning a brand new Chromecast, which should be presented at the next I/O conference. Also, we thought that the latter would have the first button.
This will ultimately not be the case. Indeed, another device released this week already offers a remote control equipped with the magic button. This is the Onn 4 K Pro, a streaming box marketed by the American brand Walmart. The remote control has a button with a star icon, which can be customized so that it opens the application of your choice. In other words, as mentioned before, it is a shortcut.
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Current remote controls, notably that of the Chromecast, already offer shortcut buttons, generally for streaming services such as Netflix or YouTube. The advantage of this magic button is therefore to be able to choose which application to open yourself by pressing it, without having to go through a third-party application.
We should therefore soon see this button land on more Google TV devices, as the previous rumor indicated. With a new Chromecast on its way to the next Google I/O, we imagine that the Mountain View firm has already notified its partners of the implementation of the functionality. This saves valuable time if you often use an application on Google TV that is not on your remote control.
Source: AFT News