(Image credit: Future)

We've known for some time that Gemini would be expanding to replace Google Assistant across Google properties, and we've reached the moment when that happens on television. That's going to bring a more conversational assistant to your TV.

Google Assistant has been one of the better voice assistants on TVs which, like Alexa, can provide not only control of your TV, but search for content, as well as wider integration into smart home services.

Gemini though has been lined up to supplant Assistant for some time, slowly adding functionality to offer the same broad set of services, while bringing more advanced conversational interaction. That's mainly happened on phones so far, with plenty of anticipation for the wider move into TVs and cars.

Now Google has officially announced that the roll-out of Gemini to Google TV sets has started.

The advantage that's going to bring includes a support for more free-flowing conversation, so you won't have to be as precise with what you say, while follow-up discussions will let you take suggestions further.

That's not all entirely new: Google has offered smart searching for some time, but the Gemini assistance will be more diverse, offering things like deeper research, hooking into YouTube videos for example.

That again, is hardly ground-breaking, but is a difference in approach, able to extract more meaning from your phrases. It should make using voice control on your TV better, as long as it does everything that you expect it to do.

Interestingly, Gemini is going to make its debut on the TCL QM9K series TVs. This flagship TV in the US equates to the C9K in the UK, but it's not clear exactly how this rollout will progress.

Google also mentions the QM7K, QM8K and X11K, so TCL is getting a strong name-check here, while Hisense's U7, U8 and UX models are also mentioned. There's no mention of Sony or Philips, both of which are substantial users of the Google TV platform.

Additionally, the Google TV Streamer will get the update, with wider distribution cited as "coming soon".