Sky Glass And Stream Update: New Features Explained | Cord Busters

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Sky’s two streaming devices – the Sky Glass TV and the Sky Stream standalone puck – have both gotten a free software update with several new features this week.

Among the new features is the ability to connect Bluetooth headphones to Sky Glass and several improvements to the Playlist feature.

The updates are all software-based and are free to all new and existing Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers (see below for the full list of new features).

These additions are part of a long list of upcoming improvements we reported about last month, with more new features and changes expected before Christmas – and a few others that will be coming early next year.

The highly anticipated Picture Quality software upgrade for Sky Glass hasn’t been pushed out yet, unfortunately – but we’re still hopeful it will be released before the end of the year.

Sky Glass (see my review), which was released last year, is a 4K TV set that features a QLED HDR display and a built-in Dolby Atmos soundbar with six speakers. 

Sky Stream (see our review), which launched a few weeks ago, is a standalone streaming set-top box that works with any broadband provider.

Unlike other Sky services in the UK, Sky Glass and Sky Stream don’t use a satellite dish – instead, they rely on broadband, and stream all the content to the TV, much like other streaming devices like the Amazon Fire TV and Roku – or streaming services like Sky’s own NOW (see our Sky Glass VS Now comparison).

Sky is currently running Black Friday deals on both Sky Glass and Stream – check out the discounts here.

Sky Glass / Stream: What’s New?

The new software version, titled QS012.010.00P, started rolling out to Sky Glass and Sky Stream devices a couple of weeks ago, but most devices should have gotten it this week.

Your device should get the update automatically (when it’s on standby – so usually during the night). You can check your current software version in the device’s Settings.

If it looks like your device hasn’t updated yet, you can try to unplug it from the wall, wait about 20 seconds, and then plug it back in – that may reset the update process.

So, here’s what’s new with this latest update:

‘Play Now’ is now ‘Continue Watching’

The “Play Now” rail on Sky Glass and Sky Stream was always baffling – it showed a combination of series and films you started to watch, along with content you’ve actively added to the Playlist for future watching.

According to Sky – and I’m not surprised by this – users were getting confused by the Play Now section.

Therefore, Play Now is gone – and replaced by the much more common Continue Watching rail, which we all know and love from other streaming devices.

The Continue Watching rail will simply show you thumbnails of content you started watching (from a variety of supported streaming services) – so you’ll be able to easily jump back in right where you stopped.

Playlist Moves Up

The Playlist rail, which is the main watchlist and content-bookmarking section of Glass and Stream, finally moved further up on the homepage so it’s really quick to get to it, as it’s now the first choice on the category rail.

Most Recent Rail in Playlist

Previously, TV series in your Playlist would be sorted by… who knows (perhaps the order in which you added them to the playlist). 

Now, there’s a new ‘Most Recent’ rail at the top of your Playlist, that will display all your most recent shows (those that have new episodes will be first) – so you can get to new content and episodes quickly.

Recent Episodes And Shows Showing First

Another example of something that should have been like this from the start – but better late than never, I guess.

Show’s pages used to show every season and every episode of the show – from first to last.

So, after adding a weekly show to your Playlist, you’d have to scroll through ALL the seasons and episodes every week, just to find the most recent one.

Now, shows with new episodes will show first on the Playlist’s Most Recent rail  – but also, you’ll see the most recent episode of those TV shows or the latest sporting events first in their individual ‘Show Pages’ (with the ability to then scroll through older episodes).

Bluetooth Connectivity

Even though Sky Glass has had Bluetooth from the start – with the remote paired to the TV via Bluetooth – there was no way to connect other BT devices.

With the new update, you’re finally able to connect Bluetooth headphones to Sky Glass, and watch everything without disturbing others late at night.

However, the Bluetooth update is apparently only for Sky Glass, at least for now (so it’s not supported on Sky Stream).

More new features that we’re expecting to see in the coming months include personalised playlists (finally!), improved voice commands, a Remote Finder (yes, your remote will beep when you’re searching for it), and more.