Google with its multitude of businesses also runs a fiber arm under the moniker ‘Google Fiber’, to provide high-speed internet access and television services to its customers. Though the Fiber program was started in 2012, the rollout has been very(yes, very!) sluggish and has since expanded to only nine American countries.
There’s very high probablity that you’re not a customer of Google Fiber, but if you are, then you might be aware about the DVR set-top box that the company provides with it for entertainment/TV services. Well, yeah that set-top is now old and clunky as compared to Android TV set-top boxes, but Google is still working on improving it for you,
And to prove that, Google has surprisingly dropped the biggest feature-packed update to Fiber TV since its launch.
This software update brings a refreshed new interface to show you more useful information up-front and center. It is applicable to both live TV and recorded shows, and helps you navigate through entertainment content more swiftly. As you can see in the image above, the new interface is a step closer to Android TV and brings materially designed blocks to the set-top box. Google has also gone ahead and reorganised the cluttered DVR options to make it easier to navigate to your recordings.
This update has also brought some much-needed machine learning powered recommendation and search features to the forgotten set-top box. The Smart Search feature allows for searching by titles, actors name, sports teams and other criteria. The Fiber TV is now comparable to other contemporary set-top boxes which can provide personalized TV and movie recommendations based on your viewing patterns. So, you will now see an array of Tom Cruise movies, if you’ve been binging on the Mission Impossible series on the weekend.
The movie recommendations(and its description) now also includes ratings from film review website Rotten Tomatoes. Another great add-on to the updated user experience of the new software.
The new software update starts rolling out to current users today, notes the official blogpost. It will available to all users in the coming few weeks, while new users will be able to enjoy the updated Fiber TV experience as soon as their set-top box is installed.
