Google TV

localby ALYT

What it adds to a house

adds nothing yet.

How a person connects it

Method: nativeApp. Install ALYT on the TV. On your phone or computer, open ALYT → Settings → TV, then link the code on the screen and choose its room.

What it can look for

Nothing: it does not look for things on the network.

What stops working when it is disconnected

This screen loses access to your home. Remove its connection in Settings → TV.

The descriptor

Connection fields are served for a program at /connectors/google_tv.json.

{
  "source": "built-in",
  "visibility": "public",
  "listed": true,
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "docsUrl": "https://developers.alyt.com/connectors/google_tv",
  "kind": "GOOGLE_TV",
  "logo": {
    "url": "/integrations/logos/google_tv.png",
    "color": "#4285F4",
    "ratio": 1,
    "background": "#FFFFFF",
    "inset": 0.08,
    "scale": 1
  },
  "name": "Google TV",
  "icon": "tv",
  "connectivity": "local",
  "brings": [],
  "connect": {
    "method": "nativeApp",
    "setupPath": "/settings/tv",
    "fields": [],
    "help": "Install ALYT on the TV. On your phone or computer, open ALYT → Settings → TV, then link the code on the screen and choose its room."
  },
  "discovery": null,
  "disconnect": {
    "consequence": "This screen loses access to your home. Remove its connection in Settings → TV."
  },
  "author": {
    "kind": "alyt",
    "name": "ALYT",
    "url": "https://alyt.com"
  }
}

The guide

Google TV connects through the TV’s own native ALYT app and stays local to the home while the TV is awake. A developer links one screen from ALYT Settings → TV by entering the expiring code shown on the TV, then choosing the room for that screen. The connection is scoped to that household and can be revoked from Settings → TV. This connector exposes the TV as a playable screen for cameras and voice-driven room selection, but it does not provide cloud-assistant linking or a generic wake-from-any-state guarantee.

How connection works

Open ALYT on the TV first. Then, on phone or web, go to ALYT → Settings → TV, approve the code shown on the screen, and choose its room. The current homeowner selects the home and room during pairing. Room membership is what gives the TV its voice destination, and credentials can be revoked individually.

A connected TV receives a dedicated home-scoped surface credential. It does not receive a homeowner refresh token or reusable camera-provider credentials. Disconnect TV revokes the current connection and clears local state, even if the server is unreachable.

What the connector exposes

The TV presents a native screen with Home, Rooms, Cameras, and Settings. From the developer and household point of view, the useful behaviors are:

• camera viewing on the selected TV
• room-based destination selection for voice requests
• visible focus and large-card navigation on the TV screen
• muted audio at start, with playback ending at the deadline

When a camera view is requested, the foreground TV poll receives a short-lived, single-camera HLS viewing ticket. Every playlist and segment check current home, camera, grant, room configuration, and deadline. If any of those change, the view fails closed. A revoked, idle, or expired view does not continue.

What it cannot do

Google TV does not automatically become part of Alexa room groups or Google Home hearing-room context through this API. Those integrations need their own adapters, account linking, and acceptance. Installing the native apps alone does not complete those cloud-assistant flows.

The TV app cannot guarantee waking a suspended TV or replacing another app. That responsibility belongs to the local controller, and it is only available for SELF homes with the existing on-site runtime. A hosted PLATFORM home does not get a made-up Linux box or an unsupported TV power command. If the TV is awake, it can reach ALYT by outbound HTTPS.

The first native release also depends on the ALYT receiver being installed on the selected TV. Direct Cast or AirPlay without that receiver is a separate transport with its own codec, session, app registration, and interruption/restore acceptance.

Voice and room selection

A voice request can target a camera and a destination room. An explicit TV always wins over a room. If no TV is named, the system resolves the hearing device’s current room inside the exact home. Multiple TVs require a choice, and duplicate camera names are refused until they are made distinct. If a request says “this camera” without a selected-camera context, the camera name must be spoken.

The initiating account must still belong to the home. A trusted internal voice request must identify an active voice device in that home. The receiving TV’s current permission remains authoritative for media reads.

When it fails

Check these first if Google TV does not connect or play a camera:

• the TV has the ALYT receiver installed and the app is open
• the pairing code is current and was approved in the correct home
• the room chosen during pairing matches the room used for voice routing
• the TV is awake and on the network
• the household still has permission, and the connection has not been revoked
• the camera name is distinct if there are duplicates in the home
• the selected camera still has a valid grant and has not reached its deadline

If a view request is acknowledged but nothing plays, treat that as requested, not as a confirmed decoded frame or a woken TV. Audio starts muted, and playback stops at the absolute deadline.