Android TV 13: Operating system for smart televisions released

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With Android TV (OS) 13 – or Android 13 for TV – Google has released the latest version of its operating system for smart televisions and streaming hardware, the sticks and dongles, but the Innovations are limited. Many of the manufacturers have just upgraded their devices to Android 12.

Android 13 for Smart TVs released

The core of the new TV and streaming operating system Android 13 for TV is based on Android 13, which was released in August of this year, and, like its predecessors, has a user interface specially adapted to smart TVs, streaming hardware and set-top boxes . The most relevant new features include improved control over the resolutions and refresh rates of supported HDMI devices, as well as tuner optimizations HAL 2.0.

Google lists the following improvements for the feature set of Android 13 for TV:

Media & Power

  • Anticipatory audio route lets apps identify the routed device and supported formats before creating an AudioTrack
  • User controls for preferred resolution and refresh rate on supported HDMI source devices
  • Power management improvements for low powered standby
Input Control & Accessibility

  • Hardware mute switch states are reflected in the system privacy controls
  • Updated user controls for Assistant microphone access on the remote
  • Global preferences for enabling audio descriptions across apps
  • New Keyboard Layouts API allows selection of different language layouts for external keyboards
HDMI & Tuner

  • Better handling of HDMI state changes on HDMI source devices
  • Improved language selection for HDMI source devices
  • Tuner HAL 2.0 with performance optimizations, twin tuner and ISDB-T Multi-Layer support
  • Framework for interactive TV use cases as an extension to TIF

Android 13 for TV – Release Notes < /blockquote>

The mentioned improvements were realized through updates of the AudioManager API and InputDevice API as well as the AccessibilityManager API.

Compatible smart TVs and streaming hardware should be able to be read and controlled even more accurately, and the numerous data protection improvements from Android 13 will also be adopted in Android TV 13.

Manufacturers are distributing Android 12 for the time being

But Android 13 is far from being available on current smart TVs and streaming hardware can be found on the market, as various manufacturers and Google itself are just gradually updating their devices to Android 12.

Google has two for developers System images released for download for the ADT-3 Developer Kit for Android TV and the Google TV based on it. For more information, see the Android Developers Blog.