On Tuesday, Google offered an update on its TV platform, Android OS, at its Google I/O developer event. The company said its Android TV OS now reaches over 80 million monthly active devices through its new experience, Google TV for Chromecast and other platforms like smart TVs. The company also previewed a series of upcoming features for Android TV OS, including a remote control feature for consumers and several developer updates around casting, emulators, and more.
The company repositioned the Android TV OS last fall by introducing the Google TV experience. The new experience, which runs Android TV under the hood, now powers Chromecast with Google TV and smart TVs from Sony and is coming soon to some TCL TVs. Over 80% of Android TV OS’ growth came from the U.S. Google noted this when announcing its 80 million monthly active devices milestone during the Google I/O event. Google’s milestone may put Android TV OS ahead of rivals like Roku and Amazon Fire TV, with 53.6 million and 50+ million monthly active accounts, respectively. However, these are different measurements.
Android TV OS figures are calculated by counting the number of devices actively used in a month — which means a user with multiple devices could have those devices counted separately. Still, a family with numerous people watching on one device would be counted once. Roku and Amazon define monthly active users as “accounts” happening during the month. That means even if that account streams on several different devices during the time, it would only be counted once. If Roku or Amazon were to calculate active devices like Google, their numbers would be higher.
In addition, Roku and Amazon Fire TV power their respective company’s device lineup and select TVs from partners. However, Google’s Android TV OS also powers devices and services from TV and streaming device brand partners and TV service providers. This global number includes operator-tier and set-top boxes powered by Android TV OS. It’s a different type of market. Google today also announced it’s adding remote control features directly in Android, so users can control their TV even when their existing remote goes missing. This feature, arriving later this year, will make it easier to type in usernames and passwords or search for longer titles in Google Notes. It will work for all users of Android TV OS, including Google TV.
Meanwhile, for those building Android TV experiences, the company announced a handful of new features coming soon. A Cast Connect feature will allow users to cast from their Chrome browser to an Android TV app on their phone or tablet. Stream Transfer and Stream Expansion enable users to transfer media to other devices or play audio on multiple devices. Google is also making its first Google TV Emulator available, running on Android 11 and an Android 11 image with the traditional Android TV experience.
Developers can now also use a remote more closely mimics TV remotes directly within the Emulator. Following developer requests, Firebase Test Lab is also adding Android TV support. Firebase Test Lab Virtual Devices will initially run the developer’s app in the cloud on Android TV emulators to scale a test across hundreds or thousands of virtual devices. Support for physical devices will come soon. Finally, the Android 12 Beta 1 is available for TV on its ADT-3 Developer Kit, starting today.
