The feature was announced last year, alongside personalized screensavers
Google TV is the perfect service for bringing together all of those streaming subscriptions you keep meaning to cancel. While its relationship to Android TV can be a little confusing, the company continues to work to make it the best way to watch TV and movies in your living room. Profiles are finally coming to the platform, a long-awaited addition that should make binge-watching reality shows a little less embarrassing. In classic Google fashion, though, you’ll still be waiting a while to try them out.
The company announced profiles in October of last year, set for release by the end of 2021. Two months later, Google delayed profiles indefinitely, failing to provide a date on which they might appear on supported Chromecasts and devices like TCL’s compatible TVs. The company’s hesitance to commit to a launch date became even more apparent when, in the lead-up to I/O, it announced the arrival of personalized screensavers, a tool designed to sync with profiles to showcase custom recommendations.
Unfortunately, even I/O — an obvious place for an official launch for the feature — came and went without a word. Instead, Google announced profiles are rolling out starting today with support for all devices running the software. Unlike screensavers — which were modified heavily between their initial announcement in October and their eventual release — profiles seem unchanged. Personalized recommendations, individual watchlists, and sync across devices were all features highlighted last year, and they’re here in the general release too.
It doesn’t seem like most users have access to profiles just yet. On both my Chromecast and TCL 6-series TV, I cannot add or switch profiles from the settings menu. Google says it’s coming to everyone in the “next few weeks,” effectively asking users to wait just a while longer for profiles to finally arrive. But hey, if you’ve been patiently waiting seven months for multi-user support to arrive on your Chromecast, what’s a few more weeks?
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