Google TV Streamer Is The First Android 14 Device For TVs

Earlier this week, Google put an end to one of its most popular brands, Chromecast, and instead launched the first of what could be a series of Google TV streaming boxes: the Google TV Streamer. The Google TV Streamer is a sleek, pill-shaped box that costs twice the price of the Chromecast it replaces, but in return, it packs a more powerful processor, smart home features, Google AI integration, and the latest Google TV features. While Google didn’t specify which version of Google TV its TV Streamer runs on, Android Authority Evidence has shown that, unsurprisingly, it is running the latest version, which is based on Android 14 for TV.

Android 14 for TV, also called Android TV 14 by many, is a special version of Android 14 optimized for TVs. It was officially announced at Google I/O earlier this year, where it was revealed that the update brings improvements to power efficiency, accessibility, performance, multitasking, remote control, and networking. Despite the new OS being revealed at I/O, there weren’t any devices that could run the new version, not even as a beta. Instead, Google provided developers with an image that they could run through the emulator in Android Studio. However, developers will soon be able to test their apps on real devices thanks to the Google TV Streamer, which appears to run Android 14 for TV right out of the box.

We know this because we got our hands on a firmware dump for the Google TV Streamer, codenamed “kirkwood,” which is unambiguously based on Android 14. While we can’t share a firmware dump, we have used it to reveal the chipset in the Google TV Streamer. For developers, we can also reveal that the Google TV Streamer is still running a 32-bit version of Android despite the fact that it comes with 4GB of RAM.

While the build won’t matter to most users, the fact that Google TV Streamer runs the latest version of Android TV does matter. In fact, as I just mentioned, the latest version brings a number of improvements across the board. In short:

• To reduce power consumption in standby mode, Android 14 for TV introduces two new power modes, Low Power Mode and Optimized Power Mode, which disable certain features when the TV is not in use.
• To improve accessibility, Android 14 for TV adds color correction modes, improved text options, and better navigation options.
• To improve performance, Google has improved boot latency, reduced launcher cold start time, improved home screen vertical and horizontal scrolling performance, accelerated data loading, and reduced storage usage by 20%.
• To improve multitasking, picture-in-picture mode is finally available for Google TV, but there’s a catch: apps that play media content can’t use this feature.
• To improve remote control, Google TV has finally added the native Find My Remote feature. This feature is activated by pressing a button on the back of the Google TV Streamer.
• To improve networking, Android 14 for TV now supports Android’s Thread networking suite. This allows supported devices with a Thread radio, like the new Google TV Streamer, to act as a Thread border router.

Aside from these changes, Android 14 for TV also inherits several core platform changes from the base version of Android 14. One of these changes is a new API that allows apps to embed a custom activity into the Device Controls interface, which is how the new “Google Home panel” was born on phones running Android 14. The Google TV Streamer is also getting access to the Google Home panel, likely made possible by this new API. This could also explain why the Google Home panel isn’t coming to existing Chromecast devices right away, which currently run Android 12 for TV.

Overall, Android 14 for TV is a big update for the TV platform. Typically, platform updates aren’t that big of a deal for Android TV since most of the features are in the launcher, but there are a limited number of changes that can come from a launcher update. Given these improvements, I hope the Google TV Streamer won’t be the only device running Android 14 for TV for long.