Google TV might be the platform of choice for Pixel fans, but Roku still maintains a massive hold over the streaming experience. With its latest update, the company’s delivering some pretty big enhancements to how search works on the platform — including the addition of AI voice support — while also adding live sports scores and making it much easier to start watching something during Friday movie nights.
With its fall update, Roku is bringing a ton of new functionality to its devices, and unsurprisingly, AI is a big factor. Roku’s voice search now supports a custom-built AI interface that allows audiences to ask questions related to all sorts of entertainment, including movies, shows, and actors. The examples given in Roku’s announcement aren’t particularly deep — “What’s Barbie about?” is the main example given, and at the risk of sounding dismissive, it’s about Barbie — but it could be handy, especially since answers are shown directly on the TV, rather than requiring your smartphone.
It’s not the only search-related change, though. Roku is bringing its search functionality to its Live TV Zone and Live TV Channel Guide in the coming months, after bringing it to What to Watch in September. That should make it faster to skip through the service’s FAST channel collection to find exactly what you’re looking for, and as a frequent FAST-viewer myself, it’s a welcome change.
Movie trailers are getting a “Ways to watch” button that directly links to supported applications and storefronts, allowing you to directly jump into your next binge-watch. Similarly, search results will now display up to two streaming applications where that particular movie or show can be found, with the selected options based on your currently-active subscriptions. Both improvements seem to be aimed at getting you to watching movies or shows faster than before.
For sports fans, Roku’s sports-focused app will now display live scores over the game selection tiles, allowing you to see all ongoing games as they develop. Crucially, this can be disabled, so if you’d rather not know that your beloved Buffalo Bills and their current 4-2 record might be a little fraudulent, well, at least you don’t have to close your eyes to avoid it. Roku is also adding reminders for upcoming games that send notifications directly to your phone through the company’s app, so you don’t need to keep track of, say, a hectic MLB playoff period all on your own.
Finally, a handful of other changes are included as part of this release, including Bluetooth headphone support on the Roku Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus. The mobile app is also getting options for closed captions and Find My Remote functionality, among other improvements.
Roku says these improvements are rolling out to supported devices “in the coming months.”
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