But you're 100% right. The user experience for glass and google fi have both been pretty horrible. They don't even have a mechanism to receive feedback, yet they are purporting that I am "beta testing" for them.
I have a feeling when they want to know whats good or bad at about a product, they look 95% at a database.
Yeah, that's a good way to say it. It just seems as they don't even believe in their products themselves, whom they're for and how/if they'll maintain it. They're great at making "tech demos" (for IO specifically), but products? Nope, sorry.
Also upcoming public awareness about ads/tracking and how to block them might bring significant changes in their revenue success.
I think Google was forced to give up on AndroidTV and just expects people to buy the Nexus Player for $69. Considering how much better the Nexus experience is on phones compared to the skinned Android versions, in the end, I think this is probably the better move. Especially when I can just unplug it and move it to a different TV. I don't want my TV buying choices to be limited to whatever model supports Android TV.
Not to mention, the low end is probably dominated by the Chromecast. I have two, they're great. I don't need yet another box or remote in my life. I just want TV's with Chromecast (or a cross platform equivalent built-in). I don't need more smart devices. In fact, I need less. The internet of things is greatly over-rated.
The Roku is in a unique spot: it's got a channel store, so it can be expanded easily, and it can be operated with only a TV (no phone or tablet required), but isn't to the point where it can run full apps. It'll be interesting to see what happens, given the Fire TV (excluding the stick, which is closer to a Roku) and current iterations of the Android TV have been sales disappointments.
Perhaps a lot of what Apple showed off is already developed into Now on Tap (part of Android 6).
Hard to know, though. Haven't seen any android blogs report on it.
Edit: I'm also incredibly infuriated that Netflix works in Apple's Universal Search but not Google's. That is infuriating.
This seems counterintuitive to me -- you'd think Apple has an incentive to push people toward iTunes instead of Netflix, but I can't figure out why Google would want to obscure that content.
* Universal Search (nope)
* Recommended to Watch (nope)
* Using your phone as a keyboard (LOL NOPE GOOD LUCK WITH THAT PASSWORD BRO)
Their app doesn't have ads, thank god, so I'm trying to figure out what the motivation would be. Is it just trying to get people to watch Netflix content they wouldn't have otherwise seen?
If they just become a cog in a larger search wheel then you'll just go directly to the one show you want to watch.
* Universal Search - which they're doing with everything else - the user is trying to find a very specific content.
* Recommended Shows - the user is looking for things to Watch
Netflix could easily plug into both of these to capture the user - but they plug into neither and instead opt to create a suboptimal flow for the user.
What they're doing here is that, when on Android I search for a Show I never see a "Watch on Netflix" button.
And there's never interesting movies to watch on Netflix highlighted on my homescreen.
They're not doing themselves any favors by NOT having this functionality.
I suspect they are - their catalogue is strong enough (and paid for) that people will seek out the app when they realise it is not included in the recommended watching list.
Their strength these days is not their catalog size, which is constantly shrinking, but their original programming.
Which is exactly the type of stuff they should be surfacing in the OS itself - as it's what makes people stay with Netflix.