Back in January, unifi launched a new set-top box (STB) for it’s IPTV service called unifi TV Plus. Since it is an Android TV-based device, the new box is also equipped with an equally new unifi TV app which has been listed on Google Play.
However, you were not able to run the app in its unmodified form on other Android TV devices up until earlier this month. Through an update dated 30 June 2020 that bumped up the app to version 1.2.2, the unifi TV app is now no longer exclusive to unifi TV Plus box.
In our tests, the app works flawlessly on an unmodified 2016 Xiaomi Mi Box and a 2016 Sony Bravia Android TV. Several users in the unifi TV section of Lowyat.NET Forums have also tested the app on another Sony Android TV, the newer Xiaomi Mi Box S and an NVIDIA Shield.
It seems rather odd that unifi has yet to publicly highlight this update to its customers. A recent post from an administrator on unifi’s Community forum however, has confirmed that the support for other Android TV devices is actually part of unifi TV’s official plan and not an oversight or a mistake in programming:
It is interesting to see unifi’s change of policy, allowing it’s IPTV app to run on Android TV devices other than on its own unifi TV Plus box. The timing of this update is also quite interesting as it comes just a couple of days after Astro kicked off its Android TV test.
We do wonder if unifi has something major planned for it’s IPTV service. We’ll update this article once we receive any official confirmation from unifi.
