Google’s streaming television platform Android TV powers more than 270 million connected devices around the world, the tech company affirmed this week.
The data point was revealed in a post on Google’s website that outlined new features coming to Google TV, the user interface across most of its modern Android TV-powered devices, including the new Google TV Streamer that hit store shelves on Monday.
The number represents an 80 percent increase in active Android TV devices on the market since last year, when the company disclosed that more than 120 million dongles, streaming pucks and smart TVs were using Android TV on the regular.
In addition to Google’s own streaming TV hardware, the company licenses Google TV to a number of other electronic companies, including TCL, Hisense, Sony and Epson. Other companies like Xperi’s TiVo use a variant of Android TV that includes custom apps or a slightly modified operating system.
This week, Google officially retired its Chromecast with Google TV dongle in favor of the Google TV Streamer, a $100 set-top box that supports the latest audio and video standards, comes bundled with a premium voice remote and allows users to control smart home devices like Nest doorbell cameras and Google Assistant-compatible smart plugs and lights.
The Google TV Streamer also includes artificial intelligence products that allow users to create their own custom ambient screen saver images, search across apps for content to watch, and includes “enhanced overviews” for movies and shows powered by Google’s newest AI assistant, Gemini.
Later this year, Google says it will expand the availability of its Google TV interface to more countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
