How to Choose the Best Remote Device Management App for Your Android TV Fleet

By Nadav Avni, Chief Marketing Officer at Radix Technologies

Android TV is becoming the smart choice for many Smart TV users. Making sure these devices run smoothly requires a reliable remote device management app. 

“Remote device management app” is a phrase you will want to keep close to your heart as the Android TV keeps rising in the Smart TV market. 

While some TV brands carry their own operating systems, many other manufacturers and telco operators took the smarter route. Instead of investing heavily into their own systems, they partnered with Google for their OS needs. This gave their devices a full-featured system that offers more than just streaming video services. In fact, Android TV extends smart devices’ capabilities to activate voice commands, run apps, and control other devices. 

For operators and manufacturers using Android TV, they’ll only need one more thing to close their loop. They’ll need a capable remote device management app to control their devices.

From TV to Smart TV to Android TV

The television is one of the household appliances that successfully transitioned from static to dynamic equipment. Regular cable and direct-to-home TV services don’t cut it for the modern viewer. They prefer on-demand services that allow them to view their shows at any time. Smart TV, which primarily allows TVs to connect to the internet, offers a basic expansion of connectivity services. 

Apart from including the majority of popular streaming companies, smart TVs also often include social media and other popular apps. However, smart TVs running on a manufacturer’s OS remain limited in functionality. Many manufacturers won’t provide regular updates for their OS. 

This leads to a system that only offers a limited number of apps. In some cases, some manufacturer OS can become obsolete, unable to accommodate new apps or even accept updates. Meanwhile, Android TV runs on Google’s powerful Android operating system. This means that smart TVs running Android TV will always have the latest updates and apps available. It also provides a direct connection to the Google Play Store, so users can download more apps and games than any other smart TV OS. 

Google also extended many popular Android features to Android TV aside from the Play Store. This includes voice and sound activation that lets users use the Google Assistant via hands-free mode.

These are the main reasons why Android TV continues to grow in popularity year after year. In fact, Google said that in 2021, Android TV attracted over 110 million active users and signed up a growing list of operators and service providers worldwide. 

In addition, more TV manufacturers are also featuring Android TV as their operating system of choice. New players in the Android TV market include Sony, Hisense, and TCL.

Android TV Fleets Require a Reliable Remote Device Management App

The power and flexibility offered by Android TV make it an ideal choice for many hardware vendors and telco operators. Instead of shelling out a substantial budget to develop their own system, vendors and operators will find it easier to adopt the Android TV system to ensure they always have the latest apps available for their users. Manufacturers and operators often deploy thousands, if not millions, of devices. 

Ensuring that each device carries the latest version for Android TV and all pre-installed apps is easy if the devices are still on the warehouse floor. Once the operator deploys the smart devices to individual customer homes, managing and updating them can pose a challenge. This is where a reliable remote device management app comes in.

Challenges of Managing Android TV Fleet Devices

For telco operators and hardware vendors, relying on older device management systems can backfire badly. For one, relying on direct connections to manage or update devices can entail a substantial investment in fielding IT teams to individual households. In addition, using legacy protocols such as TR69 may no longer be safe or even efficient. These older systems are more prone to security breaches and offer only token security.

Instead of relying on legacy systems or off-the-shelf solutions, Android TV operators can instead use modern solutions that offer better connectivity and security. The modern remote device management app uses secure cloud servers such as Amazon Web Services to provide reliable, secure connections to each fleet device. This allows operator IT teams to perform updates on selected units or simultaneously on all fleet devices.

Ideal Remote Device Management App Features

The ideal remote device management app should easily handle the monitoring, management, and security of the operator’s entire Android TV fleet. Using cloud access, IT teams should have no problem connecting to one or all devices to check and ensure that everything is operating smoothly. This makes the operating system reliable and convenient for users.

Remote Device Management

The right Android TV device manager should have full remote capabilities that allow IT teams to perform updates, rollbacks, and fixes without the need to involve the end-user. This also translates into substantial savings for operators, as complete remote management means reduced need for service or support calls to get the job done.

In addition, full remote administration means support teams can schedule updates or fixes during device downtimes. This prevents system updates from happening during times when the customer regularly uses the device. Remote management also allows operators and providers to easily add new apps and features across the entire fleet. This means a faster time to install and launch new features compared to individual installation sessions.

Continuous Monitoring

Aside from managing system software and apps, the ideal remote device management app should provide complete monitoring services. This ensures that only authorized users are given access to certain sections of the devices. This includes checking if the authorized user registered to the device is the one actually using the unit. Outside of customers, there are multiple layers of stakeholders that require different access levels. 

For example, the system administrator and the IT teams need access to the entire operating system to diagnose problems and apply fixes and updates. Marketing, sales, and management teams might need limited access to collect user data and collate the findings into helpful insights.

Superior Security

Finally, the ideal remote device management app should provide superior security services to prevent device or data theft. Geolocation services help locate Android TV devices and verify if the location corresponds to the user’s registered address. In cases of missing or stolen devices, administrators can apply geo lock to automatically disable Android TV units once they show up outside their registered locations. In extreme cases, operators can remotely freeze stolen units or erase user data to prevent sensitive user information from leaking.

Android TV is fast becoming the popular choice for many smart TV operators and vendors. To keep the entire fleet of Android TV devices working optimally, consider pairing your Android TV investment with a reliable remote device management app.