Google is about to fully move on from the Google Play Movies & TV. It had already moved Android and iOS users to the Google TV app, removed the app from every Roku and most smart TVs, and pulled the app from Android TV in October. In a recently published support document, however, Google detailed the ways you’ll be able to watch the shows and movies you’ve bought through Google Play Movies & TV once the brand is gone for good in January.
If you have a TV or streaming device powered by Android TV, you can watch things you’ve purchased or things you want to rent from the Shop tab starting January 17th, according to Google. If you have a cable box or a set-top box that runs Android TV, you’ll watch / rent from the YouTube app starting that same day. And on a browser, YouTube is the place to go, too.
Google has been slowly pushing users away from Google Play Movies & TV for quite awhile, and 9to5Google reports that the Google Play Movies & TV app on Android TV has already started pointing to the Shop tab, so hopefully these changes won’t make for too jarring of a transition. Notably, you’ll still be able to watch the things you’ve purchased even though you’ll be getting the content from a different place, which is better than Sony’s announcement that it will be removing Discovery content that users paid for from their libraries.
Google isn’t the only one consolidating its entertainment apps and platforms. Apple introduced a refreshed TV app that lets you access things like Apple TV Plus as well as buy and rent shows and movies all in one app.
