Google has admitted that its Google TV software is too slow
Google is working to make its TV experience faster, more responsive and less annoying for users. According to a post on its support forum on Monday, the company is working on Chromecast with the Google TV streaming puck as well as the number of options to manage boot time, general performance and storage on both third-party TVs.
The company says the Google TV homescreen loads faster, reducing the time before you have to choose what content to watch. Google says it has achieved performance improvements “through improvements in CPU optimization and cache management” and has begun rolling them out to third-party devices and is “coming soon” to Chromecasts.
According to the post, users should see faster performance in several areas – loading live tabs, scrolling on the homescreen, or using kids profiles. Some of these improvements, according to the company, are thanks to Google TV itself using less RAM, leaving more for apps, especially when you’re switching between different screens.
According to Android Police, the company is responding to complaints about how storage limitations can make it difficult to install apps for Google TV, especially on devices like Chromecast, which only have 5GB of usable space. Google has added a menu in Settings > System > Storage that will let you free up space by clearing the device’s cache and uninstalling apps, which it says has been rolled out to Chromecast and will come to smart TVs soon. There is also an “automated process that runs in the background” to free up space for apps.
With recent reports about Google looking to integrate wearables and free channels into Google TV, it looks like the company is gearing up to push users towards its big screen experience. If that’s the plan, it makes sense that she’s now trying to improve the basics. However, as people need more apps to keep up with the growing number of streaming services, it may be time for hardware manufacturers (including Google) to consider upgrading the storage that comes with Google TV devices. Software tricks can help reduce the number of low storage error messages, but there’s really no substitute for having more space.
