DirecTV Stream has now officially launched with the former AT&T TV branding having switched over to DirecTV Stream. The deal which saw AT&T’s various video services, excluding HBO Max, being spun off into a separate company was completed some time ago, but the changeover at the user level was not scheduled to take place until August 26. While the name has now changed, the service hasn’t, and that includes the lack of general support for Android TV devices.
Although DirecTV Stream is the new name, the service has gone through multiple rebrands over the years. First starting out as DirecTV Now, the service eventually changed to AT&T TV Now. However, that was a short-lived change with AT&T TV Now then being absorbed by AT&T TV with the latter then offering both no contract and two-year plans. The two-year option was then dropped and it quickly became clear that DirecTV Stream was going to be the new name. At the same time, a new DirecTV company was created by AT&T and TPG Capital to take over the reigns for AT&T TV, DirecTV, and U-verse.
Today, the service officially made the switch over to the DirecTV Stream branding at the user level. This is not only via the website but also in terms of the apps as well. Those now attempting to download AT&T TV on a device will be redirected to the DirecTV Stream app instead. While the apps have a new name, not much appears to have changed and this includes the lack of support for devices running on Android TV.
For some time now, AT&T TV has had an Android app. After all, the dedicated AT&T TV player, now simply referred to as the ‘DirecTV Stream device’ runs on Android TV. However, the app has largely remained unavailable on other Android TV devices with no option to download from the Google Play Store. That appears to still be the case now. Although the AT&T TV Android app has been updated to DirecTV Stream on the Play Store, the app listing still shows Android TV devices as unsupported, including the Nvidia Shield TV and Chromecast with Google TV.
Likewise, the official device support document has also been updated to reflect the change from AT&T TV to DirecTV Stream, but that also appears to be the extent of the changes, with only phones and tablets listed as officially supported Android devices. The support document does list Chromecast support, but that seems to be only in relation to casting to a Chromecast-enabled device rather than support for the Chromecast with Google TV.
Due to this, it would seem that the change from AT&T TV to DirecTV Stream is not going to result in any immediate or meaningful improvement to device support. Those who were already able to access AT&T TV on their devices will continue to be able to access through DirecTV Stream. Unfortunately, that also means those who were locked out of accessing the service will remain unable to use DirecTV Stream on their preferred devices.
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