As a geek of the latest technologies who keeps a sharp eye on innovations, I witness that numerous big players are entering this app-building game because;
Smart TV apps can generate revenue through various means like subscription models, in-app purchases, advertisements, and partnerships with content providers. (Ideausher).
In this blog post, I’m going to give a detailed overview of how these apps are built and run their operation on various modems.
Let’s get started!
Types of Smart TV Platforms
In a growing world full of innovations where competition is at its peak, we have a variety of smart TV platforms that are infused with immersive features.
Although every platform has different characteristics and benefits to avail from their subscription models.
To simplify this discussion, I’m crafting a chart below that has a detail of every popular software:
Platforms
Voice assistant
Navigation and connectivity
App Utility
Amazon Fire TV
It has one of the best voice assistants, Alexa, and it works seamlessly within and beyond TV systems.
It has toggles for navigation and connectivity. It works with Miracast/WiDi for some phones and most Windows PCs, but it doesn’t work with Apple AirPlay or Google Chromecast.
Almost every streaming app is present here, but niche apps like Twitch and Crunchyroll are not well-optimized.
Apple tv
You can use the advanced version of Siri here to access the complete control panel.
This comes with Apple AirPlay. You can easily stream any audio or video from your iPad, iPhone, or Mac to an Apple TV 4K. There’s no Google Cast, obviously, or Miracast.
Apple’s TVs have the weakest ecosystem for third-party apps, but now every major service listed above works on the Apple TV and Apple TV 4K media streamers.
Google TV
Google has now gone a bit further than Alexa in this game because of the infusion of the Advanced Gemini Algorithm.
Google has currently moved away from Chromecast, so both Android TV and Google TV enable you to easily stream from any Android device or Chrome browser tab. You can’t use AirPlay or Miracast/WiDi in most cases.
You can download almost every platform available on the internet due to its flexibility in third-party installations
Roku TV
This is one of Roku’s biggest shortcomings. Although Roku TV boasts a voice search function that is quite effective in finding content to watch and controlling your TV,
Roku TV supports both Apple AirPlay and Miracast/WiDi, but it doesn’t work with Google Chromecast.
Roku offers an extraordinary arsenal of apps and streaming services, which it calls Channels.
LG WebOS
It has an assistant named ThinkQ for navigation toggles
Like Roku, it supports Apple AirPlay and Miracast/WiDi, but not Google Chromecast.
It doesn’t have a big inventory of the app utilities.
Key Features of Smart TV Apps
As per my experience of using almost every software, I’ve seen that every platform has its signature features and exclusive features. Although most of the necessary features are remarkably alike and act similar.
The core elements of every system are:
Ample content access in various languages
Accessible navigation and control panel
Human interactive features like voice assistance
Media playback and DLNA compatibility
Connectivity and integration using multi-device support
Advanced quality availability options like 4K HDR
Did you know? According to recent data, most smart TV users primarily stream content through apps, with around 58% of viewing time dedicated to streaming services on smart TVs. (Coolest gadgets)
Development Approaches for Smart TV Apps
After performing comprehensive research on app development, I saw that many software teams use different algorithms and programming languages for their production functionality.
Although the major factor they work on is providing an immersive user experience to foster a new audience, these proactive customizations include:
Designing texts and icons according to different screen sizes
Improving performance by efficient coding and crafting a faster bond with malware
Easy-to-use guiding tools
Testing connectivity and compatibility among different platforms
Equipping new and convenient monetization plans for users
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Development Approach
Now if you have read the above approaches that are influential for every building application procedure, let me tell you some significant factors that it relies on.
As far as I know, these factors range from company to company, and the statistical value of each platform is conducted by analytical user demographics.
The major services are developed more prominently to handle maximum users, while premium services focus more on quality.
Some important things these criteria contain:
Catering to a specified target audience Attractive UI and UX design Seamless integration within and beyond platformsCalibrating a safe and encrypted viewership modelAdding new features after every update
Intriguing Insights This pie chart here shows the user acquisition of different modems among the smart TV audience.
Challenges in Smart TV App Development
This is the most important part of this segment because everyone wants to compete in an app development scenario, but it comes with numerous challenges that are very complex and time-consuming.
Firstly, fragmentation into diverse streaming setups makes it hard for coders to optimize and streamline the applications across varied options. Hardware limitations in TVs are a major problem for the improper functioning of some software programs.
Limited analytical descriptions and app store guidelines are also stopping creators from something out of the box. The dominance of big names also tries to suppress the new programs in the market.
Future Trends in Smart TV Apps
Regardless of these changes, I believe the future of smart TV apps is going to shine bright because of the emergence of innovations in multiple domains.
Over time, people will explore different and unique content options where new players will rule immersively.
The new trends of development will include intuitive infrastructures like:
AI-powered personalization options for themes and UI
Integration of futuristic experiences like AR and VR models for the consumption of media
Voice commanding over natural language and contextual understanding
Gaming availability options by incorporating strong chipsets into the television’s hardware
Adding specialized categories for different niches.
Conclusion
To sum up this entire journey, I just want to say that this industry will break records in the future because of the integration of AI and machine learning algorithms.
App development demand on smart TV will grow because the production of exclusive and premium content is also growing at a fast pace simultaneously.
Make sure to check out all the paragraphs above to get a detailed description of the initial stages of advancements in application architecture for smart televisions.
Gaurav Rathore
