Google is looking to improve the Google TV experience with some quality-of-life updates.
In a blog post, the company announced that it is releasing two updates to Google TV in order to improve the performance and storage space the operating system takes up on devices. While there aren’t any new features to get excited about, it’s always nice to see a company make infrastructure updates that — while you might not see them — you’ll definitely feel them.
The first update focuses on freeing up storage space on devices that Google TV is installed on. The company says that its new App Hibernation features should reduce the amount of storage space required by installed apps by as much as 25%. The feature is also immediately available to users with no update needed on their part.
App Hibernation is a new feature that will automatically force apps to hibernate when not used for over 30 days (on Android S and above devices). We also leveraged Android App Bundles for Google TV reducing the size of the apps by roughly 25%. This frees up space on your device to download even more apps and to watch your preferred programs without worry.
The company has also included some performance improvements that should address startup and loading times as well as latency when using a remote with the system.
We have made updates to both your devices and remotes to eliminate wait time. We reduced the time it takes to wake up your Google TV, the response time between your TV and button clicks on your remote, and the amount of time you see the loading animation when rebooting your device. These improvements are already rolling out to your devices and will help you get to your content faster.
Google released the update a couple of weeks before the company is set to host Google I/O, its annual developer conference. The event is expected to officially reveal the Pixel 7a, Pixel 8, and Pixel 8 Pro, in addition to showing off its upcoming software.
