We’ve only seen a couple of devices get the Android 14 update for TVs and, so far, they’ve all been for Google TV. Now, though, Walmart has rolled out one of the first Android 14 updates for Android TV.
Android OS upgrades typically don’t bring a ton of changes for the end user, but they’re still important for the platform level. Android 14 for TVs has been very slowly rolling out over the past year, only reaching around a dozen devices until recently.
The one that thing that most of those devices share in common is that they use the Google TV experience, rather than the outdated Android TV experience that’s mostly gone by the wayside at this point. But, finally, we’re starting to see this happening.
Walmart has just started rolling out Android 14 to its 2021 streaming devices, still with Android TV as the experience.
From what we can tell, this isn’t the first Android 14 update for Android TV, but it’s easily the most widely available. Devices from Dynalink and Humax were also updated from Android 10, to Android 12, and now to Android 14, all with Android TV being the user-facing experience.
This is probably the last major Android update that will support the Android TV experience, though. Not only are we seeing fewer devices (and TV sets) shipping with Android TV, but the hardware that is out there is aging quickly. Frankly, it’s a miracle that we’re seeing Android 14 on devices like Walmart’s 2021 lineup. On top of that, Google didn’t even release an Android TV emulator based on Android 16 yet, though that still might come later.
More on Google TV:
Follow Ben: Twitter/X, Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
