It’s been many years since televisions stopped being silly boxes. They have become one of the most intelligent devices in our house. The fact is that any modern Smart TV offers a wide selection of extremely practical functions. However, there are not a few users who simply look for the icon of their favorite streaming platform. And it is a mistake, because they can give much more of themselves.
You can make your Smart TV smarter
Many manufacturers offer specific applications to control their televisions beyond the device itself, in those, for example, phones. Samsung uses Smart View, while LG’s app is called LG TV Remote. All of them provide access to the basic features of the television, as well as advanced options such as sending content stored on the mobile.
In those, when the full potential offered by smart televisions and their functions is discovered, the user changes his attitude when using it, and no longer sits “to see what they put on TV” but it is the user himself who manage what content you are going to see, among a huge catalog of entertainment options.
If the TV is based on Android TV, they can also be controlled using Google’s Android TV Remote Control app. It is very basic, but it can easily get us out of trouble. And if our TV uses an alternative platform or we want to use an application to access the options of all kinds of devices, there are third-party alternatives. But did you know that there are tricks to make our Smart TV smarter?
We have very practical functions
The fact is that any modern Smart TV offers a wide selection of extremely practical functions, but not a few users are limited to looking for the icon of their favorite streaming platform. And it is a mistake, because they can give much more of themselves.
With a smart TV you can watch TV, of course, but also many other things, in the same way that a smartphone is not only a telephone, it is also a compass, a note book, an agenda, a game console… its many functions provide simple solutions even if you don’t have them connected to the antenna. And they are the following.
Play video games without a console
If there is an audience that really knows the features and potential of modern Smart TVs, that is the gamers. In addition to being used to check the weather, the stock market or watch YouTube videos, a Smart TV can also replace the classic game console, either by downloading games from its own application store or taking advantage of dedicated streaming platforms.
Since a large part of its catalog is shared with the basic Google Play, televisions with Android TV have a large repertoire of video games of all kinds ready to download. You just have to connect a Bluetooth gamepad and start enjoying. In the Tizen case there are fewer options, Steam Link can give a lot of play. Never better said. This technology allows us to connect our PC to the latest generation Samsung televisions without the need for cables, using only a WiFi network.
Record TV content
If you are one of those who like to watch television, you will want to record a program if it catches you outside your home. Well, if your television is of a medium or high range, surely it has this function.
It is enough to buy a hard disk since most do not record on a flash drive and record everything you can and want, of course.
Install apps that are not available
Android TV is one of the most widely used Smart TV platforms at the moment. And for very good reasons. It’s intuitive, easy to implement, and has a huge number of apps at its disposal, many of them shared with its namesakes for tablets and mobile phones. Basically, many of the apps you already have on your Android phone are also available for Android TV. But not all.
To install a mobile application on the television, we must allow the installation of programs from unknown sources, a parameter that we can find within the security options in the configuration menu. After that, we can install a sideloading application such as Sideload Launcher, which allows us to run these applications that are not officially available for Android TV but are available on other versions of Android.
Surfing the Internet
It is super easy to connect the smart TV to the Internet. Once you do this, you will also be able to browse the internet through your television (obviously if you buy a keyboard and mouse dedicated to this, the experience will be even better).
This is one of the points where Smart TVs are eating up the terrain of computers, laptops or tablets, and that now you can also enjoy at home.
Give commands to your TV with voice assistants
Many are smart TVs that have integrated voice assistants. Some of the most famous are the Google assistant or Alexa, but there are many more, such as Samsung’s Bixby. Be that as it may, thanks to these assistants you will be able to give any type of order to the television just by means of your voice. These are some of the most common:
- Put the channel you want.
- Control the music.
- Open and close any application.
- Control apps like Netflix or Spotify.
- Ask about the weather, news or events.
- Set reminders for later.
Stream content from other apps
There are more and more apps that allow you to send content to the television so that you can view it in the comfort of a big screen. For example, if you play a Netflix movie on your smartphone and you have a Smart TV, with the touch of a button you can ‘send’ this content to be played on the TV. You can do the same with Facebook and other platforms.
The truth is that Smart TVs are very good for using social networks, since the big screen makes viewing images on these sites a whole new experience.
