# Google Search updates tells you all about what's on your TV. Neat.



## editor (Jul 2, 2014)

Say to Google search on your phone: "What's on my TV" and it will pop up with a load of relevant info about the programme. 

I tried it last night during the football and it gave me bios of the players and related team info, and again today when the news was on, and it served up links to some of the news stories. 

Very clever indeed.


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## Redeyes (Jul 2, 2014)

Doesn't seem to work for me!


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## Redeyes (Jul 2, 2014)

A quick trip to the Play store and an update of the app and we have lift off! Very cool!


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## souljacker (Jul 2, 2014)

That's quite cool. Pity voice search is still a bit pants though.


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## editor (Jul 2, 2014)

souljacker said:


> That's quite cool. Pity voice search is still a bit pants though.


It's almost 100% accurate for me! I use it a lot now.


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## editor (Jul 2, 2014)

Redeyes said:


> A quick trip to the Play store and an update of the app and we have lift off! Very cool!


It's well clever, isn't it?


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## souljacker (Jul 2, 2014)

editor said:


> It's almost 100% accurate for me! I use it a lot now.



Any ambient noise seems to cause it issues. Don't get me wrong though, Siri is far worse.


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## Redeyes (Jul 2, 2014)

editor said:


> It's well clever, isn't it?


I don't get how it works, tried it on a dialogue scene in The Betrayers on ITV and it nailed it straight away. How does it know?


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## joustmaster (Jul 2, 2014)

it works well for me too. which i find surprising, as sometimes my friends have no idea what i am on about


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## TodayIsCaturday (Jul 2, 2014)

Anyone who has their TV on but has no idea why needs to take a long hard look at themselves.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 2, 2014)

Redeyes said:


> I don't get how it works, tried it on a dialogue scene in The Betrayers on ITV and it nailed it straight away. How does it know?



I dunno.  I just tried it and it got it, so I decided to go for some stuff that I recorded that wasn't on today.  It didn't recognise one of the World Cup matches with Korea that's on my recorder, but it immediately recognised _Hi_gh _Society _that I recorded weeks ago

How indeed does it work


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 2, 2014)

On googling, I've seen a response that says "It's the same principal as Shazam/Soundhound/etc., but for television", but how could it tell that Louise Armstrong singing in _Hig_h _Society _was from a film and not something else?


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## Bob_the_lost (Jul 3, 2014)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> On googling, I've seen a response that says "It's the same principal as Shazam/Soundhound/etc., but for television", but how could it tell that Louise Armstrong singing in _Hig_h _Society _was from a film and not something else?


It is not only watching you, but also watching the TV?

Edit, scratch that, in your case they really are stalking you.


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## editor (Jul 3, 2014)

TodayIsCaturday said:


> Anyone who has their TV on but has no idea why needs to take a long hard look at themselves.


So you've never just flicked through the TV channels to see what's on?


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## mack (Jul 3, 2014)

editor said:


> So you've never just flicked through the TV channels to see what's on?



Yeah but you just press the info button on your remote and it tells you what you are watching?

Tried it whilst watching a tv show on the laptop last night and it didn't work.


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## editor (Jul 3, 2014)

mack said:


> Yeah but you just press the info button on your remote and it tells you what you are watching?


The info button on my TV doesn't give me instant access to reviews of the film, a full set of links to bios of the actors, photos, clips and more. It just gives me a very short description.


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## mack (Jul 3, 2014)

Ok I get that - would come in handy occasionally.

I generally rarely watch "live" tv - it's mainly all catch up stuff.

What would be a great feature - would be for google to be able to notify you of something that might interest you on TV.

Eg. You've searched for Tom Cruise in the past and there is a TC movie on at 9.. or you've searched for a holiday in Spain and there is a travel show featuring Spain that evening.


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## souljacker (Jul 3, 2014)

I noticed last night that it doesnt tell you whats on, it tells you what should be on! I was watching the news but as it had overrun slightly, it told me I was watching that doc about Sarah Lewthwaite instead. So it seems it can recognise the channel you are watching then just pulls up the listings for that channel.

It didnt get the recorded thing I tried it on which I thought was a bit daft as I asked it during the opening credits/theme tune


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## Jon-of-arc (Jul 3, 2014)

It didn't get house of cards on Netflix. So this has to be live TV? Which I never watch.


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## EastEnder (Jul 3, 2014)

Jon-of-arc said:


> It didn't get house of cards on Netflix. So this has to be live TV? Which I never watch.


Try rephrasing the query: "What _was_ on my TV?"


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## joustmaster (Jul 3, 2014)

I'm annoyed that I have to say TV instead of telly.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jul 3, 2014)

editor said:


> The info button on my TV doesn't give me instant access to reviews of the film, a full set of links to bios of the actors, photos, clips and more. It just gives me a very short description.


And considering many programmes split three screens when the credits are on, it often means you can't see half the credits' so it's definitely handy for that.  I'm going to try it on that Movies for Men channel.  They're so many bad films on there, it's not worth watching half the time, so seeing star ratings may save me the bother


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## Mr Smin (Jul 3, 2014)

Jon-of-arc said:


> It didn't get house of cards on Netflix. So this has to be live TV? Which I never watch.



Has to be live. Google will have some device 'watching' all the major channels and will match the audio your phone picks up to one of the current live broadcasts. Most likely applying some math to simplify the audio to make matching take less effort.


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