Watching modern TV is as much about anxiously fiddling with settings to make sure the picture doesn’t look terrible as it is about actually enjoying a show. Happily, Google TV now lets you put all the hassle on Gemini.
First announced during the Google TV news dump at CES in early 2026, the new functionality allows you to adjust picture and audio settings with natural language voice commands. You can set brightness and contrast levels, change picture modes, turn up the volume and tweak the EQ without needing to reach for your remote (though you can also summon Gemini by pressing the microphone button if you don’t want to use the wake word).
As well as specific commands like “Set picture mode to Sports” (likely to be popular in the coming weeks, as the World Cup has just started), you can also troubleshoot if something doesn’t look or feel right. If you say “Hey Google, the screen is too dark,” Gemini will try to fix the problem for you. Tell it that you can’t hear the dialogue clearly and that the voices will become louder. This type of thing.
If you want a theater-worthy movie night, you can also use Gemini for mood-setting, and if you don’t completely trust the AI’s calibration skills, you can save yourself a few clicks by instead opening the exact settings menu you’re looking for before taking over.
Google points out that picture and sound modes vary across devices, so it would be wise to make sure you know what your TV can do before using the new voice features. Otherwise you may spend more time trying to get it to look and sound right than using the old-fashioned manual solution.
The other thing to note is that this functionality is currently exclusive to select TCL models in the US. It will start rolling out to QM9K, X11L, QM9L, QM8L and RM9L in the next few weeks. You will need to update the system to start using it. There’s no word on when or indeed if other models or brands will be supported.
Google TV’s Gemini-assisted functionality has been expanding over the past few months. In March, Google introduced its “Rich Visual Assistance” feature, which attempts to respond to commands with more useful information. For example, ask for current sports scores, and Gemini will display a live scorecard and information about where you can watch that game.
Sports Brief, essentially a sports-oriented version of the news roundup that debuted last year, also arrived in March, as well as visual “deep dives” on specific topics.
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