Google TV, the new smart TV interface that debuted on Google’s most recent Chromecast, appears to be getting a small but important tweak for its “Continue watching” row. Over on Reddit (via 9to5Google) user u/Alfatango97 has spotted a new option to manually hide entries from the row, which is designed to let viewers quickly jump back into unfinished TV shows or films.
When it works, the Continue watching row is a convenient way pick up from where viewing was interrupted. But occasionally it can get cluttered with content you started watching and have no intention of finishing, or content that’s finished but whose credits are so long that it still shows up as in-progress. Being able to manually clear out the row should make it easier to see the shows and films you actually want to finish.
It’s the latest example of Google’s two TV interfaces — Android TV and Google TV — slowly converging. 9to5Google notes that the ability to manually prune titles from the “continue watching” list has been possible in Android TV for a while, it’s just now shifting over to Google TV. Meanwhile, Android TV has received a series of updates that have made it look and perform more and more like Google TV. The convergence seems inevitable given that Google TV is set to replace Android TV over the next two years.
9to5Google notes that the feature is yet to widely roll out. We’ve contacted Google to ask when it’s due to be available to everyone, and will update this article if we hear back.
