Kodi 18 Leia is still in the works, although the makers of the popular home theater software have had a lot to deal with, including the latest ruling from out of the European Union pertaining to certain Kodi media players. Despite the problems, they’re still moving forward with features, and now they have released a new demo video showcasing a pair of the most-anticipated new features that will be added to it.
Kodi 18 is finally bringing support for voice search, a feature many other Android TV apps have already supported for some time. The other new feature being highlighted in the demo is recommendation tiles.
Kodi 18 Leia adds voice search
To use the voice search feature in Kodi 18, the user just selects the microphone button, and then they can perform a search simply by asking, even from the Android TV launcher without launching Kodi beforehand. If the requested title is available in Kodi, then Kodi will appear as one of the listed options in the results. At that point, the user can then choose Kodi, which will open the software.
Voice search can also be used within Kodi 18, so if the user has already launched the software, they can use their voice to search for something specifically within the software rather than just performing a general search of all the software on their Android TV.
Searches can be done for titles or actors or actresses
Kodi 18 Leia also to bring recommendation tiles
The recommendation tiles inside Kodi 18 Leia are pretty self-explanatory. The software will basically show recommendations in a special feed in the launcher. Users will also be able to see recommendations from Kodi in the Android TV launcher outside the app. It appears to function similar to how recommendations appear for a lot of other integrated apps on Android TV.
The Kodi team explained that the recommendations for TV shows are based on shows the user has watched but episodes they haven’t seen yet. Movie recommendations come from random movies that the user hasn’t seen yet, based on what they’ve watched before. Those who have stored music in Kodi will also find recommendations for music.
Those who can’t wait to try the new features out will find that they went live in the nightly build of Kodi 18, which is available to be downloaded and installed now. However, as it’s only a nightly build, this version probably won’t be available for very long, as it’s only meant to be a sort of beta for those who want to try it out. The full version of Kodi 18 isn’t ready quite yet, but you can bet that when the first release candidate is ready, you’ll hear about it.
You can check out the full demo video here:
