At the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026 in Las Vegas, Google took center stage with a bold vision for the future of the living room: transforming the humble television into a truly intelligent, conversational companion. The company unveiled a host of new Gemini AI-powered features for Google TV, promising not just smarter content discovery, but a more intuitive, interactive, and personalized experience for viewers of all ages.
Google’s Gemini AI, which first made its way onto Google TV devices in November, is now set to dramatically expand its role. According to 9to5Google, the new features are designed to take full advantage of the large screen, making the TV more than just a passive entertainment hub. Instead, it becomes a dynamic surface for conversation, learning, and creativity—all accessible with the ease of natural language.
One of the most striking announcements is Gemini’s ability to let users control their TV’s picture and sound settings simply by speaking. Gone are the days of fumbling through labyrinthine menus in search of that elusive brightness or audio option. Now, viewers can say things like, “My screen is too dim. Make it brighter,” or “The dialogue is lost,” and Gemini will instantly adjust the settings—right in the middle of a movie or show, without any interruption. As TechCrunch puts it, “Perhaps the most useful feature is one that gives you the power to optimize the TV’s settings using only your voice.” This small but meaningful change could spell the end of remote-control frustration for millions.
But Gemini’s ambitions go far beyond convenience. Google is positioning the TV as a shared learning tool for the whole family. When someone asks a complex question—say, about a scientific phenomenon or a historical event—Gemini responds with a visually rich, narrated overview tailored for the big screen. This new framework combines large text, high-resolution imagery, relevant video clips, and even real-time sports updates to deliver answers that are both engaging and easy to understand. For trickier topics, a “Dive deeper” or “Deep dives” button invites users to explore further, offering interactive, step-by-step explanations. As Google noted in its official announcement, these overviews are “simplified for the whole family,” making learning together on the couch a real possibility.
Gemini also reimagines how families interact with their digital memories. With conversational search, users can ask the TV to find specific moments or people in their Google Photos library—“Show photos of Maya’s graduation,” or “Our beach trips from 2019”—and see them displayed in a beautiful carousel or fullscreen view. What’s more, Gemini introduces creative tools like Nano Banana for image generation and Veo for video creation. With just a prompt or a quick photo upload (easily done by scanning a QR code with your phone), users can remix their photos in artistic styles such as Watercolor, Pen, or Art deco, or transform them into cinematic, immersive slideshows. As Google explains, “You’ll see a carousel with the fullscreen viewer offering buttons for ‘Remix’ and ‘Edit’ with Nano Banana… You can also ‘transform memories into cinematic immersive slideshows.’”
These features aren’t just for fun—they turn the TV into a social canvas, perfect for family gatherings or reliving favorite moments together. And because the experience pulls content from the cloud, a Google account and an internet connection are required. Google has been transparent about privacy, emphasizing the importance of account-level controls and on-screen transparency, especially in shared living spaces.
Gemini’s new conversational abilities also extend to content discovery and entertainment. Viewers can ask for recommendations based on blended tastes (“Find something we’ll both like”), get recaps of shows they paused months ago, or even identify a show from a vague plot description or actor’s name. The AI’s responses are delivered through a multimedia-rich interface, combining text, images, and video context—sometimes even sports scores—tailored to the specific query. As The Verge observed, this marks a subtle but significant transition from static menus to dynamic dialogue, reflecting how people naturally talk about TV.
The rollout strategy is measured but ambitious. The new Gemini features will debut first on select TCL televisions, with a broader release planned for other Google TV devices in the coming months. To use Gemini for TV, devices must be running Android TV OS 14 or newer, be connected to the internet, and have a signed-in Google account. Not all features will be available in every country or language at launch, and some older or lower-tier devices may not support the full suite of capabilities.
This staged approach—starting with TCL as a flagship partner before broader distribution—reflects Google’s desire to fine-tune the experience and ensure reliability. As Android Police points out, the success of Gemini will ultimately depend on how quickly and accurately it responds to voice commands, as well as the clarity and helpfulness of its answers. If the system proves reliable, Gemini could quietly become the default remote control for millions of living rooms.
Of course, Google isn’t alone in this race. Competitors like Amazon (with Alexa on Fire TV), Roku, Samsung, and LG have all integrated voice assistants into their platforms. What sets Google apart, according to The Verge, is Gemini’s multimodal reasoning—the ability to understand the context of what’s on screen, what the user has asked, and what they’ve already watched, delivering responses that feel personalized rather than templated.
The broader context for these innovations is the ongoing shift in how people consume television. Nielsen’s Gauge index and data from Parks Associates show that streaming has now overtaken cable in U.S. TV usage, and smart TVs are present in over half of broadband homes. The living room screen is becoming a battleground for software-driven experiences, and Google’s Gemini push is a clear bid to “own the discovery layer of where decisions are made.”
As families gather around the TV—whether to watch, learn, reminisce, or simply ask a curious question—Gemini’s AI-powered features promise to make every moment more accessible, interactive, and enjoyable. If Google’s vision plays out as planned, the TV may soon be the most helpful, human-like device in the house—no remote required.
