Google just gave your TV a new way to entertain you and your family

Your TV has been the most underused screen in your house for years. It plays movies and YouTube, sure, but past that, it just sits there waiting for you to point a remote at it. However, Google is about to change that in a pretty big way.

What Google is rolling out for Google TV

In a new blog post, Google announced a fresh batch of Gemini-powered features hitting Google TV, and the focus is creativity. You can now generate images on your TV with Nano Banana, make custom videos with Veo, and pull up specific Google Photos memories just by asking.

The image generation works through voice prompts. Saying something like "make my dad wear a hilarious outfit" puts a twist on a family photo right there on the big screen.

Veo handles the video side. You can create a clip from scratch or add motion into an existing photo, all by describing what you want.

How to access the new creative tools

1. Open the Gemini tab on your Google TV
2. Select "Create"
3. Pick Images or Videos and describe what you want

Both Nano Banana and Veo are landing first on Gemini-enabled TCL Google TVs in the U.S.

Photos search, Remix, and a new way to scroll

Once you find a picture you love, Photos Remix lets you reskin it in artistic styles like watercolor or oil painting. Dynamic slideshows turn any album into a screensaver gallery with collages and animated layouts, and that one is rolling out globally on eligible devices instead of being locked to TCL.

There's also a "Short videos for you" row coming to the Home page this summer in the U.S., starting with YouTube Shorts. The doomscroll has officially graduated to the living room.

Why this matters more than another AI update

Google is reframing what a TV is for. Smart TVs have sold us on streaming for years and not much else, however now Google is treating that 65-inch panel as a shared creative space, a memory archive, and a casual scrolling surface all at once.

It should be noted that this is also a clear pivot. Google trimmed the Google TV budget last year to lean harder into YouTube, and these features show exactly where that strategy is heading. The Shorts row and the deeper Gemini integration that started at CES are two halves of the same plan.

The catch, as always, is the TCL gatekeeping. If you own a Google TV Streamer or any non-TCL set, the headline creative features aren't coming to you on day one, and that's unfortunate.

Get Visible as low as $20/mo for 1 year. Limited time offer with code: FRESHSTART

$20 /mo

$25

$5 off (20%)

Offer Ends 6.1.2026 at 11.59pm ET. New members get $5/mo off the $25/mg Visible plan, $35/mo Visible+ plan, or $45/mo Visible+ Pro plan for the first 12 months. Promo code FRESHSTART required at checkout.

Buy at Visible