Months ago, Google announced the company gave a facelift to the Google TV homescreen, making navigation of the service’s content library easier. The reorganized home screen allows users to continue watching where they left off without having to open or switch apps.
Google also added a watchlist feature to the homescreen which works across all devices. You can start a movie on your Google TV and pick up where you left off on your smartphone for streaming on the go.
Now, Google TV is updating its Chromecast service to create a faster streaming speed while freeing up storage space. The changes are intended to create a much better TV viewing experience for customers. Google TV is preloaded on compatible television sets and streaming boxes.
A new App Hibernation feature will free up storage space on devices by reducing the size of apps by around 25% through Android App Bundles on Google TV. Any app not used for 30 days will be forced into hibernation. Freeing up unused storage space allows members to download more apps and games that they actually will use on their TVs and other supported devices. Think of it as an automatic filter eliminating apps that you simply never use and are just collecting digital dust on your devices.
Google TVs will also wake up faster as well as communicate quicker between remote controls and devices. Loading animations will also decrease in length.
All the new improvements have already been automatically updated on supported devices. No additional action is needed from customers to install/update manually. New Google TVs will also already have these new features included.
Google TV offers “a smarter way to stream,” with prices beginning at $29.99 for HD and $49.99 for 4K. The devices are available at Google’s online store, as well as retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and Amazon.