Google and MOVL Interpret Social TV as Games

Google and technology start-up MOVL are drawing on games to develop a new kind of social TV experience with two new apps called WeDraw.tv and PokerFun.tv. Users play the apps using their iOS or Android smartphones or tablets, but use a television screen as the communal game board. It sounds a lot like multiplayer gaming, only with smartphones instead of keyboards and mice and television screens instead of computer monitors.

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The concept and trial-and-error deployment of socially-enhanced television experiences has resurfaced dozens, if not hundreds of times in the past decade, but no company has yet nailed the concept or delivered it at the right time for it to catch on massively. Google and MOVL seem ready to try again, this time leaning on games for back-up support.

What's odd is that the "TV" part of this social TV set up isn't really "TV" at all. Only the screen is being utilized (not television programming content) as part of the network.

Viewers—or really "players"—will be able to connect with other players in front of other television screens who are in different geographic locations. WeDraw is a drawing guessing game in which the TV becomes the game board and players use their phones as controllers to draw pictures and guess secret words. PokerFun turns the TV set into a poker table. Players see what cards they've been dealt on their phone or tablet, where they also place their bets and play out the hand.

Both apps are available to check out in the GoogleTV Spotlight (video below).

The news was announced via a guest post on the Google TV blog by Alan Queen, founder and CTO of MOVL, yesterday.

MOVL's business is to create applications for connected television sets and mobile devices. Two additional apps it has listed on its Web site include WeTeli, a "social video jukebox," and SmartFitTV, an "on-demand personal trainer."