Tuneline Is Now on Google TV

Today we flipped the switch on Google TV support. If you have a Google TV, a Chromecast with Google TV, or any Android TV box, you can now install Tuneline straight from the Play Store and use it the way it was always meant to be used on a couch — with a remote, in big bold UI, with everything you've already set up on your other devices waiting for you.

It's the same Tuneline you already know. Same accounts, same sync, same playlists. Just shaped for the lean-back experience, where the only input device is a D-pad and the screen is ten feet away.

What "Now on Google TV" Actually Means

A few practical things, because the Android ecosystem is messy and "available on Google TV" can mean very different things in different listings:

• One Play Store listing. There is no separate "Tuneline TV" SKU. The same com.tuneline.tuneline package on Google Play now serves phones, tablets, and Google TV from a single AAB. Search "Tuneline" on your TV, install, sign in, done.
• One account, everywhere. If you already use Tuneline on a Mac, a Windows PC, an Ubuntu box, or an Android phone, signing in on the TV pulls your playlists, favorites, watch history, and per-source settings down within seconds. No re-pasting M3U URLs into the world's worst on-screen keyboard.
• One purchase. A Tuneline license is per-account, not per-device. The TV install does not cost extra and does not require a separate subscription.

If you've ever paid for an app twice because the "TV version" was a different SKU, you'll appreciate this.

What Changes on the Big Screen

The interface knows it's on a TV the moment it boots, and it adapts:

• D-pad navigation everywhere. Every interactive surface in the app is reachable with up/down/left/right + select. No more pretending a touch UI works with a remote.
• Larger hit targets and a focus ring that's actually visible from across the room.
• Lean-back layout. The collapsible sidebar that's helpful on a 27-inch monitor gets out of the way on a 65-inch screen, surfacing your playlist grid and the player without the chrome.
• Keyboard shortcuts honored for users with a Bluetooth keyboard or a remote that emulates one — F for fullscreen, space for play/pause, arrows for seek.

What did not change, deliberately, is the player engine. Google TV ships with the same media-kit / ExoPlayer pipeline that powers the Android phone build, which means the same hardware-accelerated playback, the same H.265/HEVC support, the same handling of stubborn HLS streams. Whatever played on your phone will play on your TV.

How To Install

1. Open the Play Store on your Google TV / Chromecast / Android TV device.
2. Search Tuneline. (Or, from your phone: open the Play Store listing and pick the TV from the install dropdown.)
3. Install. You'll see Tuneline in the Apps row when it's done.
4. Open it, sign in with the same account you use elsewhere, and your library is there.

If you've never used Tuneline before, the same install path works — sign up free, paste an M3U URL or your Xtream Codes credentials, and start playing. The free tier covers one playlist on one device, which is exactly what most TV-only users want; the paid tier is for the multi-device, sync-everything case.

What Works On Day One

• Live playlists — M3U / M3U8 / Xtream Codes / Stalker Portal
• VOD and Series with poster grids and resume-where-you-left-off
• EPG / program guide where your provider supplies XMLTV
• Favorites, watch history, and per-source category ordering — synced
• Parental controls, including PIN
• Multi-source switching (toggle between providers without losing state)
• Media-kit playback with hardware decoding

What's Next

A few things are intentionally not in this first TV release and are queued up:

• PiP / multi-stream view — useful on a TV in a way it isn't on a phone
• Catch-up and DVR — the timeshift bits provider feeds expose
• Voice search via the Google Assistant remote — once the Play voice-actions API is wired up

If any of these are blockers for you, drop a note in the Discord. We move features up the queue based on what TV users tell us hurts.

FAQ

Do I need to buy Tuneline again to install on my TV?

No. A Tuneline account works on every supported platform — Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, Google TV — and your purchase covers all of them. Sign in once on each device and you're set.

Will my playlists from my phone show up on the TV?

Yes, automatically. Sign in with the same account, wait a few seconds, and your playlists, favorites, watch history, custom categories, and parental settings are all there. Sync is real-time, not a manual import.

Does this work on Fire TV?

Sideloading the Play APK on Fire TV usually works since it's Android underneath, but we don't officially support or test on Fire TV yet. A proper Amazon Appstore release is on the list, behind iOS and Mac App Store work.

What about Apple TV?

Apple TV needs a tvOS-native build, which is a separate codebase from the Android TV one. It's on the roadmap but not imminent. AirPlay from the iOS app (when iOS ships) will be the practical bridge in the meantime.

Is the TV build the same .apk as the phone build?

Yes — one AAB serves both form factors. Google Play decides which form factor a given device sees, and our app detects whether it's running on a TV at boot and adjusts the layout accordingly. This is intentional: it means a TV build never falls behind the phone build, because there is only one build.

Can I install the AAB directly without the Play Store?

Tuneline is currently distributed through Google Play only on Android. We may add a sideloadable APK on the downloads page later, but for the moment the Play Store is the supported install path.

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If you've been waiting for a proper lean-back experience for your existing playlists, today's the day. Install it, sign in, and tell us what breaks — we'd rather hear about a focus dead-spot from you than discover it from a one-star review.

— Shamir