Google on Thursday released the first Android 11 Developer Preview for Android TV. According to the company, the new software brings a ton of privacy, performance, accessibility and connectivity features to Android TV devices. As its name suggests, the new software is meant for developers and not end-users.
It is currently only available for an Android TV box called the ADT-3. The device is technically meant for developers to validate their applications on the latest version of the OS. However, Google sells it at $80 a pop to virtually anyone wanting to buy one. If you own one of these boxes, you can download and manually flash the system image on the device. Do note that all user data will be wiped out after flash. You’ll also be unable to go back to Android 10 once you’ve installed the new build.
In a blog post, Google claimed that the new release brings many of the latest Android features on Android TV. However, online reports from blogs and social media users seem to suggest that it doesn’t have some of the expected changes. For example, the ‘Live’ tab that is expected to be rolled out soon, is not found in the Developer Preview.
That being the case, it is probably only porting some of the critical under-the-hood changes in Android 11 to Android TV. Hopefully, it will also integrate all the expected new consumer-centric features before it is rolled out to the wider public. Either way, if you own the ADT-3, you can check out Google’s official Android Developers Blog for more information. Folks with other Android TV devices, meanwhile, will have to wait longer for the new software.
