Gemini is reportedly crashing Google TV for some users through an infinite search loop — here's what we know

Google TV Gemini upgrades — (Image credit: Google)

It's been about five months since Google started replacing Assistant with Gemini on Google TV, but the transition hasn't been painless. Over on Reddit, several users are reporting that the new AI assistant has broken the platform by putting its search function into an endless loop.

Reddit user Endawmyke uploaded a video of the issue to the Google TV subreddit, with others commenting that they had experienced the same thing. In a separate post on the Google Home subreddit, the claim was repeated after the user upgraded from a Google Chromecast to the Google TV Streamer.

During setup, Google TV now prompts users to allow Gemini access to personal results from other Google apps like Photos or Calendar. They then select a voice for Gemini before being taken to a search screen to find apps and content. Unfortunately, according to these reports, every time the user hits the search button, the Gemini startup screen reappears, forcing them to go through the process all over again.

4K Streamer Gemini Stuck from r/googlehome

Google hasn't officially commented on the cause of the problem, but it's likely to be an integration issue between Google's cloud-based Gemini LLM and Google TV's content discovery library. When Google replaced the keyword-matching Google Assistant of old with the new, natural language Google Gemini, it promised viewers could go "beyond simple commands" and "engage in free-flowing conversations with your big screen." This kind of thing is probably not what the company had in mind.

One potential workaround suggested by another user was to go into the settings menu and uninstall the latest Google TV update to effectively force Gemini from the platform and revert to Google Assistant. However, they noted that this was only a temporary fix. Even with auto-updates turned off, Google TV would silently update after a couple of hours and bring Gemini back to snarl up the process all over again.

Gemini began rolling out to the Google TV Streamer in the U.S. and Canada last September and is now being added to additional devices and countries as 2026 progresses. We have reached out to Google for a comment on these reports and will update this article if and when we receive a response.

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