As detailed by the folks at Android Authority, based on the information revealed at I/O and on the Android Developers Blog, Google has been hard at work under the hood fine-tuning Android 14 to give you a more responsive TV experience. The company has tackled everything from boot-up time to scrolling, so your TV should feel a bit faster all around.
To start, Google is speeding up how long it takes your TV to start up, which is nice even if you don’t turn it off very often. However, the real advantage is the faster launch time for the Google TV home screen. If you’re like most people and leave your TV in standby mode, you’ll probably notice this one right away.
They’ve also smoothed out the scrolling, significantly minimizing any lag you might have experienced before. Whether you’re browsing through menus or your watchlist, things should move a lot more smoothly now. And as a bonus, they’ve even made data loading faster and cut down on storage use, though they haven’t really explained how they managed to pull that off.
Android 14 for TV is also getting smarter about saving energy. Google has added two new energy modes that help your TV save power when it’s not in use. This is great for the environment and your wallet, and it’s also important because new EU rules are coming that require devices to be more energy-efficient, so it’s good to see that Google is getting ahead of that.
Of course, there are some fun new features as well. You’ll finally get picture-in-picture mode on Google TV, which is perfect for multitasking, in addition to the “Find My Remote” feature, which is a lifesaver if you’re anything like me and constantly misplace your remote.
Even though this update might not seem huge, it’s packed with little improvements that should make a big difference. Android 14 for TV is scheduled to launch sometime later this year to new devices and as an upgrade to existing ones.