Android TV is Google’s platform for smart TVs, and has more than 7,000 apps for Google Play on Android TV. The platform has seen constant success despite fierce competition from other home-written alternatives. Android TV now boasts 80% YoY growth in months of active users, in addition to being adopted by 7 of the top 10 smart TV OEMs worldwide and more than 160 TV operators. Google had recently announced the Android 11 Developer Preview for Android TV, and today, as part of its 11 weeks of Android series, Google marks the changes and improvements that the latest update to Android TV brings to smart TVs. What’s even better is the fact that most some of these features will also be made available for older versions of Android TV (9 and 10).
Google Play Instant on TV
Instant apps for Android were first shown on Google I / O 2016. With Instant apps, users could try apps without the hassle of actually installing them. Instant Apps worked by breaking a native app into small parts, which could be quickly loaded and downloaded, and then executed quickly. It shows the UI screen for an app, and as soon as it was closed, it was removed and did not need to be installed because it was not installed in the first place.
Now Google is bringing the experience of Instant Apps to TV with Google Play Instant. Android TV app developers can now allow users to try out their apps directly on Google Play with Google Play Instant on TV. Users can choose to install the app after experiencing it. This should come in handy as smart TVs normally have limited storage capacity compared to smartphones.
Android TV Emulator with Play Store support
Google is also making it easier for developers to test their apps, as the official Android TV emulator now supports Google Play. Developers can now test subscriptions faster via the emulator instead of having to test all the time on a real device, which would have been quite a hassle on TVs.
PIN code purchases
Google Play on Android TV will now make it easier for users to make purchases by entering their PIN instead of a password.
Gboard TV
Gboard for Android TV now gets new layouts and features that make better use of speech-to-text and predictive typing. This should make it easier to enter data, especially through distances not designed for heavy use for typing.
Auto low latency mode
Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) was first detected in June 2020 as a feature for the upcoming Google “Sabrina” Android TV dongle. Auto Low Latency Mode is a feature of the HDMI 2.1 specification that allows the device to send a signal to the connected TV to get it to disable all post-processing features that can add latency to the video display . Many televisions will brand this feature as a “Game Mode”, as it is most useful for reducing lag behind in gaming.
As Google mentions, in Android 11 and later, a window can request that auto-empty latency mode or game mode be used, if available, by requesting minimal post-processing. This is especially useful for gaming and video conferencing applications, where low latency is more important than having the best possible graphics. Google also explained to us that this is the only feature that is exclusive to Android 11 on Android TV, and that it should further be adopted by device makers individually.
App developers can prepare their apps by including the ALLM option in their Android Manifest or tweaking their code by OS version, and then the OS will automatically use ALLM when available or function normally when it is not.
Leanback Library improvements
The latest bibliography leanback focuses on simplifying app navigation and compatibility with improvements such as simpler tab navigation, paging via media titles and shared codebases across mobile and TV.
As mentioned earlier, only Auto Low Latency Mode is an Android 11 exclusive feature. Other features will be made available for Android TV based on Android 9 and Android TV based on Android 10 as well.
