The entertainment industry changed when smart TVs arrived. People didn’t need to sit through hours of ads before getting to watch their favorite movies and TV shows because smart TVs gave them access to video streaming apps such as Netflix and HBO Go for example. However, this all wouldn’t be possible without the help of Google Play Services.
Google Play Services
For the uninitiated, Google Play Services is one of the most important components of the Android operating system on both mobile and smart TVs. The interesting thing about Google Play Services is that since this is a background app, most Android fans have no idea what it does. If you are one of them, then you don’t need to worry about it since we are going to highlight some of the top features that this background app offers.
The primary role of Google Play Services is to help both native Android and third-party apps receive OTA (over the air) updates. Therefore, Google Play Services makes sure that video streaming apps such as Netflix and HBO Go are always kept up to date.
New 16.0.89 Update
Since we are talking about updates, we need to mention that the Android TV version of Google Play Services has been recently updated. The update sports the 16.0.89 version number and it is being rolled out OTA by the Android parent right now.
With that said, we are advising all Android smart TV users to keep a lookout at their notification panel and download the new update as soon as it pops up. In addition, Android fans can always manually download and install the update on their smart TVs because it has also been released in the form of APK (Android Package Kit). However, installing APKs is a bit tricky because Android fans are required to enable the “Unknown Sources” option first.
Juana loves to cover the tech and gaming industry, she always stays on the first row of CES conference and reports live from there.
