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At Google I/O 2021, the Android TV team announced an important milestone. Currently, the platform has 80 million active devices per month, with over 80% growing in the United States alone. But the team doesn’t settle for its own success. Instead, Google announced that Android 12 beta will roll out on today’s development box, the ADT-3, and shared that the current Android 11 version of the TV OS will finally be available as an emulator.
As always, you don’t have to hold your breath to get the Android 12 beta on your TV. It is only available on Google’s development system. ADT-3, specifically for developers who want to build apps for the platform. Given that the machine costs $80, the new emulator (shown above) is more accessible to small indie developers. Google launched with Android 11, allowing developers to experience a traditional TV interface in a development environment complete with a virtual remote control.
It’s a shame that Google’s official in-house Android TV dongle, Google TV, doesn’t come with Chromecast in beta. However, the device is clearly a consumer product and is aimed at the end user, much more so than the Pixel phones that have historically outgrown the growth-driven Nexus line.
When it comes to the milestone of 80 million active devices per month, it may not be as impressive, but Google specifically says: device – Not the user. It’s hard to know how many people Google actually uses the product to reach, since many families likely share more than one TV. Especially since Android TV doesn’t support multiple accounts. Also, since so many TVs come with Android TV pre-installed, I wonder how much of a difference Chromecast and Google TV made here.
Google also tells viewers that Stream Transmission (instantly transfer playback between cast devices) and Stream Extensions (to add speakers to currently playing content), both debuting in 2019 and 2020 respectively. was done.
The company emphasizes that it can transfer streams from Assistant’s speakers and displays to Android TV devices by simply saying “Hey Google, pass it to the next one.” [my TV]. “We’re positioning this feature as a new feature, but we’ve announced that stream delivery is actually compatible with “Chromecast-enabled” TVs. 2019 year. So, I doubt the stream extension Android TV is fairly new, but it may not be necessary at all.