Google Fixes Google TV App, Will Be More Responsive

Google continues to make improvements to the Google TV app. (photo: ary julianto/voi.id)

JAKARTA - Google has been working to make its Google TV experience faster, more responsive, and hassle-free for users. According to a post on its support forum on Monday, August 21, the company has been working to improve boot times, general performance, and the number of options for managing storage on both third-party TVs as well as Chromecast with Google TV streaming chips.

Alphabet Inc, Google's parent, said that the fix makes the Google TV home screen now load faster, reducing the amount of time before users can choose which content to watch.

Google says it has achieved performance improvements "through CPU optimization and cache management improvements" and that they have started rolling out on third-party devices and are "coming soon" to the Chromecast.

According to the post, users will notice faster performance in some areas, when loading the Live tab, scrolling the home screen, or using child profiles. Some of these improvements, according to the company, are thanks to the fact that Google TV itself uses less RAM, leaving more for apps, especially when you're switching between different screens.

According to Android Police, Google is now also responding to complaints that have surfaced about how storage limitations can make it difficult to install apps for Google TV, especially on devices like the Chromecast, which only have 5GB of usable space.

Google says it has added a menu in Settings > System > Storage that will allow users to free up space by clearing device cache and uninstalling the app, which has already rolled out to Chromecast and will be coming to smart TVs soon. It also says there are "automated processes running in the background" to free up space for apps.

With recent reports of Google looking to integrate wearables and free channels into Google TV, it looks like the company is gearing up to push users into the big screen experience.

If that was the plan, then it would make sense for them to try improving the basics now. 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 increasing the amount of storage that comes with Google TV devices.

While software tricks can help reduce the number of low storage error messages, there's really no substitute for just having more space.