Google ditches Play Movies app in favor of Google TV

By Peter Hunt Szpytek March 23, 2022

The Google TV app is taking over for Play Movies & TV across all Android devices. When Google TV was introduced in late 2020, its mission to replace Play Movies & TV seemed like a good idea as the preinstalled app wasn’t doing a lot to take users’ attention away from other streaming apps. Google TV’s addition to the Android ecosystem has been pretty gradual up to this point, but now it’s set to be an essential part of the Android experience.

Play Movies & TV will be officially retired as the face of Android’s streaming content store in favor of Google TV starting in May. At that point, buying content on Play Movies & TV will no longer be supported in the Play Store, Google announced earlier this week. Google TV will take Play Movies & TV’s place as the preinstalled streaming app included by default on every Android device at that point.

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The company makes sure to point out that all purchases made in the Play Movies & TV app will transfer over to the Google TV app as they’ve done since Google TV’s introduction. Users’ wish lists, recommendations, and other personalized aspects in Play Movies & TV will also transition over to Google TV.

Although the transition might seem minor, the pivot to focus on Google TV makes sense given the chokehold that streaming companies like Netflix and Hulu have on digital content. Google TV does more than simply act as a digital storefront for paid streaming content as Play Movies & TV did. Instead, the app links users to all of their streaming subscriptions in one centralized location, in addition to showcasing paid offerings.

While it took quite some time, the move to push Google TV to the forefront of Android streaming services as the company focuses on consolidating streaming options is finally coming to fruition. Luckily, the Google TV app seems to be a better option for Android users than Play Movies & T,V so the transition should benefit users in the long run.

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