Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Android 16 for TV looks almost identical to Android 14, with only slight visual tweaks in the Settings menu.
- New developer-focused features include MediaQualityManager, IAMF spatial audio support, and performance optimizations.
- The stable release is expected later this year, and Gemini integration is also on the roadmap.
Android 16 is officially headed to TVs, but in its current state, it’s not anything exciting. Despite the major version bump, the latest Android TV update brings surprisingly few visual changes, with the interface looking almost identical to Android 14 for TV. We spent some time on the new Android 16 for TV emulator build and barely noticed anything new, though that could be because it’s still early in development, and the update isn’t expected to roll out until later this year.
The most visible change lies in the main Settings menu. Here, Google has introduced clearer color separation between the left-hand menu and the right-hand submenus. Header text is now enclosed in rounded shapes, and icons sit atop darker circular backgrounds, which does help quite a bit with visual clarity, but isn’t a groundbreaking change. The Home screen and Quick Settings panel remain untouched, and overall, the UI still feels as static and, frankly, as boring as before.
If you’re hoping to see the expressive, colorful updates Google is rolling out on phones and watches with Material 3, you’ll be disappointed. There’s no sign of dynamic color theming, cool animations, or anything else, really.
While the visuals are underwhelming, there are a few under-the-hood improvements worth noting. According to Google’s official changelog for Android 16 for TV, developers will get more control over media quality and audio formats:
- MediaQualityManager: Developers can now fine-tune picture profile selections.
- Platform Eclipsa Audio codec: Adds support for the IAMF spatial audio format. (ExoPlayer’s IAMF decoder module can extend this support to previous platform versions.)
- Various improvements to media playback performance, HDMI-CEC reliability, and better optimization for 64-bit kernels.
Still, Android 16 for TV is far from final. It’s only available in an early emulator build, and the full release isn’t expected until later this year. That gives Google time to polish things further and add more features. However, we don’t think we’re in for a major visual overhaul.
Google also recently announced that Gemini is coming to Android TV sometime later this year. But as of now, there’s no sign of it in the current emulator build, and disappointingly, it won’t be launching first on the Google TV Streamer.
