Google has announced a new series of optimizations and enhancements for Google TV devices that target memory usage and storage, while also adding new categories to its Live tab of streaming channels.
The Google TV updates, which are rolling out now, come roughly seven months after a previous Google TV speed-boosting patch.
Among other improvements, the latest update optimizes the way in which the Google TV home screen loads recommendation rows and uses memory, according to a Google TV community blog post. Those changes will make navigating the Google TV interface “smoother,” while helping apps open faster.
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The update also enables the Google TV home screen to preload rows of movies and TV shows before you start scrolling, a move aimed at “optimizing the way tabs load” while “ensuring results load more quickly” when searching, Google says.
Finally, the update will “reduce the size” of pre-installed apps that aren’t used. (Hey Google: How about chopping the number of unneeded pre-installed apps altogether?)
Moving on to interface enhancements, Google says its Google TV update will add a couple of new categories to the Live channel tab: “Recents,” which will serve up recently viewed channels, and “Local news,” which will offer a selection of free streaming news channels.
The Live tab on Google TV now offers more than 115 free streaming channels following the recent addition of 14 new linear stations, including the Xumo Holiday Movie Channel, DraftKings, and Speedvision, Google added.
The latest Google TV update comes on the heels of a patch back in May.
That update included overall speed optimizations designed to make Google TV devices wake up faster, register button presses on the remote more quickly, and shorten the length of the loading animation when the player reboots.
The May update also introduced an App Hibernation feature that offloads apps after they’ve been dormant for 30 days, thus freeing up storage.
The latest Google TV update should work on a variety of Google TV-based streaming players, including Chromecast with Google TV and Walmart’s new, budget-priced Google TV devices.
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he covers smart speakers, soundbars, and other smart and home-theater devices. You can follow Ben on Twitter.