The best part of the Chromecast update is the Google TV interface that comes with it, but, as with any Google product, this UI is subject to change over time. In early February, Google TV launched a revised home screen with much smaller app icons, but in early April things were back to normal.
Article updated on April 3 after switching back to larger app icons.
In early February, some users saw a silent update on the Google TV home screen that adjusted the size of the app’s icons so that they are now significantly smaller. The Google TV home screen lists apps on the main “For you” tab, under two lines of content recommendations.
The difference was not easy to spot at first glance (which is probably intentional on the part of Google), but it becomes clear when you look closely. The application line has actually shrunk the size of the icons, making room for more icons while reducing the overall line size. Since launch, this section has been able to show seven icons of complete applications, as shown in the image above, but with this change, it can show nine, as shown below.
Functionally, it doesn’t change anything, but it takes a little bit of emphasis off the apps and redirects you to the content recommendations Google TV is so good at.
At first, the change was not widely implemented, only for some Reddit users. Within a few days, the change was implemented for all Google TV users who, at the time, included only the new Chromecast.
From April 3, it looks like Google TV is reverting its app icons from the home screen to full-size icons. We identified the change in one of our own Chromecast devices, and local friend Joe Maring also noticed the change in Twitter.
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