Android 13 is now available for Android TV

By Phil Nickinson December 2, 2022

Google today announced that Android 13 is now available for the Android TV operating system. It “brings further improvements in performance and accessibility to help our developers build engaging apps for the next generation of TVs.” So there’s that.

The Android TV interface on a TV. — Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

As is always the case with OS updates, it’s all about the APIs. Those generally are for the developers to care about, but they’re also what bring new features for the end user.

Those will include things like:

The ability to change the resolution and default refresh rate on supported devices with HDMI, “for a more reliable playback experience.”
Apps will be able to choose the optimal audio format without having to first start playback.
Different keyboard layouts will be better supported and allow game developers to reference keys by their physical location.

And that’s just the start of things, of course.

As for when your favorite Android TV device will get that Android 13 update? That’ll depend on the manufacturer. If we had to guess, we’d expect Chromecast with Google TV to get it early, and maybe Nvidia Shield, too. In the meantime, it’s available on the ADT-3 test platform, as well as the Android TV emulator. And developers have had months to play with the beta versions, too, which should help speed things along.

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