Google TV adds Gemini tools for photos, videos, and short clips

Google is pushing Google TV beyond passive viewing and into a shared creation space, adding Gemini tools that can transform photos, generate videos and surface short clips on the biggest screen in the house. The update, announced April 29, puts Nano Banana 1 and Veo 1 first on Gemini-enabled TCL Google TVs in the U.S., a sign that Google sees the living room as the next front in the AI race.

Users will be able to go to the Gemini tab, select Create, and use Nano Banana to twist an existing photo or make a new image from scratch. Veo will generate custom videos from a text prompt directly on the TV. Google said the goal is to help people “connect, create and share laughs together” in the living room, a framing that makes the product pitch as much about family use as about media consumption.

The company is also widening Google TV’s connection to personal archives. Gemini can search a Google Photos library for specific moments, bring back a browsable results page, display a shot full-screen, or start a slideshow. Google Photos Remix styles, including watercolor and oil painting, are part of the TV experience as well. That move puts private photo collections inside a shared household device, which may appeal to families gathered around a screen but also raises the stakes around access, consent and who gets to steer the content when the television is no longer just a television.

Google has been building toward this shift for months. Gemini for Google TV first launched in September 2025 in the U.S. and Canada on the TCL QM9K series, with a wider rollout planned for the Google TV Streamer, Walmart onn. 4K Pro, 2025 Hisense U7, U8 and UX models, and 2025 TCL QM7K, QM8K and X11K models. At CES on January 5, Google previewed visually rich answers, narrated Deep dives, Google Photos search and Remix, Nano Banana and Veo creation tools, and voice-based settings control. On March 24, richer visual answers, deep dives and sports briefs began rolling out in the U.S. and Canada, with expansion to Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain planned for the spring.

Google is also bringing YouTube Shorts to the Google TV home screen in the U.S. this summer. The result is a more crowded home screen and a more ambitious product strategy: one that treats the TV as a place to watch, search, edit and post, not just sit back and consume. Whether households want AI photo and video tools embedded that deeply into entertainment remains the question Google now has to answer.