Roku’s Big Free Update: AI-Powered Voice Search, Smarter Live-TV Search, Sports Tiles & More
Roku has begun rolling out a major free software update that adds AI-powered contextual voice search and several quality-of-life improvements across many of its devices. The voice search now understands context and will display on-screen answers (rather than speaking them), letting users ask follow-ups like how scary a movie is or whether a title is child-appropriate.
A new search bar on the Live TV page will scan Roku’s free live channels to find matches, and the platform now factors in active subscriptions to suggest the best streaming source. This aims to make discovering what to watch faster and more relevant to each household.
- AI voice search: Context-aware, on-screen answers for movies, shows and actors.
- Live TV search: Global search across free live channels with subscription-aware results.
- Roku Sports page: Live scores, multiple-game matchup tiles and a spoiler-free toggle.
- Bluetooth Headphone Mode: Expanding to Roku Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus for direct headphone connections.
- App updates: New shortcuts and in-app ratings for shows and movies.
- Philips Ambilight: Now supported on Roku TVs in the US to sync ambient lighting with on-screen content.
Many of these updates will appear on Roku devices “in the coming months.” They follow recent hardware refreshes like the Roku Plus Series TVs, which added hands-free voice control and automatic scene-by-scene picture adjustments on midrange models.
If you want more detail, see the original coverage: Engadget: Latest Roku Update.
Discussion: Which of these updates would you use first — AI voice search, the new Live TV finder, sports matchup tiles, or Ambilight on your TV?