Google TV users just got a great free upgrade

(Image credit: Google)

published 24 August 2022

Google's on a roll with Google TV upgrades: just a few weeks after adding personalised profiles and other customisation, there's an important update rolling out that's likely to reach your TV in the next couple of days.

The update, which was announced on Google TV's official support page, brings new features and performance optimisations.

The most important part of the update will deliver significantly improved performance. That's because it's going to manage memory better and use less of it, and that means you should see the user interface move much more fluidly and spend less time watching loading animations.

According to Google, switching to and from kids' profiles is going to be faster too. But it's the lower memory requirements that really matter here, because that affects everything you do on your Google TV.

What's new in the August 2022 Google TV update?

In addition to the performance improvements mentioned above, there are some storage enhancements too: Google has brought the same "free up storage" option that's already in Chromecast with Google TV into the Google TV Settings menu, enabling you to empty unwanted data, and there's also a new automated process to maximise the available free space. Google also says that there are other little improvements that should reduce the likelihood of encountering errors when you install new apps.

In some respects Google is having to make these changes because it's been too successful: as the official Google blog puts it, "With 10,000 apps available on Google TV, we’ve heard feedback that some of you are quickly reaching storage limits on your devices." So if you're often having to uninstall apps to make way for new ones, the storage changes should make your life a little easier.

As for when you're getting these updates, Google says "These improvements have started to roll out and will be available on all devices over time." If previous updates are any indication that means over days rather than over weeks and months, so if the update hasn't made it to your Google TV just yet it should be along shortly.

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).