Compared to the smartphone version, the Play store in AndroidTV seems to be crippled by a lot to me.
Whats especially annoying is that I cannot manually search for software updates. This is such a basic function, but I guess we have to live without it...
I am on Sony, by the way.
Any pending software updates are in "My Apps".
You are not alone.
What do you mean manually search? Mine appeear in My Apps or whatever its called. If you have auto updates enabled there may be nothing to see at all.
Functionally its the same as the old version, it just looks different. Its actually the same behavior on Play Store on my Pixel 3, but naturally that layout is very different.
As for the layout in general, yea it sucks, but I either already know what I want so I search or I'm sideloading. I have almost never browsed the Play Store on my Bravia TV or Shield.
Try Aptoide for TV...
A year ago, if you browsed the store there would only be 20 or so apps in total, it was weird.
Not much better now, but at least you can search, or use your browser on your desktop to browse the full store.
I agree. It sucks. But, maybe not Google's fault. Android Auto ain't great either.
I gave up and got an Amazon fire cube. On a sony here myself.
You can manually search for firmware updates through the device settings. Though the Play Store for ATV doesn't have as many apps as the mobile version, it does have over 5,000 apps. You just need to use the search option @ keyword, developer name, or app name to see all of the available apps. If an app available in GPS mobile is not available in the GPS for ATV, it is because the developer hasn't made one for ATV. Many can just be sideloaded though.
This might be more of an issue with Sony's implementation of Android TV on that television. I know at least on my standalone devices, just going to the app store has a section of pending updates.
I dont understand why they did that.....it is so limited on hardware that is more powerful than smartphones....makes no sense.
The limited selection of apps is due to the developers choosing not to support the OS. Sometimes there's a good reason, sometimes they are just lazy/oblivious.
For any app that I really want, I can either (usually) find it in the Play Store or sideload it (if it's "free") from someplace like APKmirror. The later have to be manually updated, but anything I get from the Play Store can be automatically updated. You just haven't realized that yet.