DirecTV recently rolled-out an app that supported Android tablets and while that app still doesn’t offer support for the Nexus 7, it looks like the company is shifting their focus to the smartphone. The DirecTV smartphone app has been and remains available, however as of today we are getting a little bit of a teaser in terms of an upcoming update.
The update will bring voice search and it is expected to arrive sometime during the summer. The searching will return results for regular television listings as well as for on-demand and pay-per-view content. The app will use natural language which basically just means that you will be able to search with queries such as “find the Lakers game” or “search for comedies with Adam Sandler.”
These searches will be possible without having any opening phrase and can then be further filtered by channel, actor, genre and time. DirecTV plans to have these voice search commands shown as speech bubbles, which should if nothing else, provide a look and style that many will be comfortable in seeing. The app will also offer some suggestions in these speech bubbles, which could lead to the user seeing some advertising.
In fact, CNET mentioned that DirecTV reps talked about how those bubbles would make a natural home for promotional opportunities. Otherwise, if nothing else, the voice search may make it a bit easier to find things to watch. After all, with an almost endless list of channels these days, scrolling to find what you want to watch is now taking longer and longer.
