Google is keeping the pressure on its closest rivals with a blockbuster free upgrade coming to its Smart TV platform, known as Android TV. The announcement was during the US firm's annual developer conference, known as Google I/O, which is taking place in Moutain View, California this week.
The event has seen confirmation that Google will overhaul its trademark search engine with new AI features designed to replace the list of links that have characterised the service since its launch in 1998. It also unveiled a supercharged new AI model, known as Gemini 1.5 Pro, to compete with the latest iteration of OpenAI's rival ChatGPT — an upgrade that led to one of its co-founders, who previously warned AI was going "too far" to leave the start-up.
Google I/O has also seen the reveal of a next-generation update for Android TV — a popular operating system that powers millions of Smart TVs from brands like Philips, Sony, TCL, and Hisense.
Android TV competes with the likes of Roku and Fire TV, which also ship preinstalled on Smart TVs to offer access to apps, games, streaming and catch-up services out-of-the-box.
Crucially, Android TV is different from Google TV, despite the latter running on the Android TV platform. Google TV, which is found on Chromecast devices, includes a more complete set of features, like AI recommendations based on your previous viewing history across all streaming services.
Unfortunately, these Google TV-only features haven't made the cut in Android 14, which is only available in an early beta version for testing at the moment. However, there are some useful new additions for TV viewers, including quick headphone pairing, faster performance, and energy-saving mode.
Google says updating your Smart TV to the next major version of Android TV should unlock a “snappier, more responsive TV experience”. Android 14 adds support for picture-in-picture, so you can continue watching a TV show or film in a small preview window while browsing the TV Guide, the menu, or multi-tasking in other apps.
Developers will need to update their Android TV apps to support picture-in-picture, so it could take a while before your favourite streaming service is compatible with the new functionality.
Android TV viewers will also be treated to new low-energy modes, which Google says put you "in control, helping to reduce a TV’s standby power consumption." There are three flavours — Low Energy Mode, Increased Energy Mode, and Optimised Energy Mode. The latter lets you wake a Smart TV in standby mode by using the Google Cast feature to beam video from your phone to the big screen, but otherwise does its best to minimise the amount of electricity used by the telly when it's not actively in-use.
As the name suggests, Low Energy Mode is the ultimate power-saving setting, even shutting off the Wi-Fi connection when your Android TV model is on standby. This means you'll miss out on automatic updates overnight and will need to switch on the TV before you can use features like Google Cast.
Lastly, Increased Energy Mode seems designed for those with connected gadgets tied into the Google Home smart home system. It keeps Wi-Fi connectivity and other background functionality enabled, so you can switch on the television using a hands-free voice command to a Google Nest smart speaker, preview live video feeds from Google Nest doorbells, control smart thermostats, and other tricks possible with the smart home platform.
Google has also made improvements to accessibility with the addition of colour correction, enhanced text options, and improved navigation. All of these features can be toggled on or off with a new shortcut button on your TV remote.
In a blog post about the incoming changes, Google highlighted the rise in Smart TVs running its telly platform. It wrote: "Over the past year, we’ve seen significant growth of Android TV OS, reaching 220 million monthly active devices with a 47% year-over-year increase. This incredible engagement would not be possible without our dedicated developer community."
There's no release date confirmed for Android 14 yet, but we'd expect to see the new features rolling out to Smart TVs later this year. The announcement at Google I/O comes as Roku revealed a blockbuster software update for its TVs, promising improvements to picture quality. Unfortunately, Roku confirmed plans to introduce more adverts across its platform just days after the free software update.
