New requirements say Google TV needs twice as much RAM as Android TV

Key Takeaways

• Google is relaxing RAM requirements for Android TV devices, potentially leading to more affordable options.
• HD Android TV devices now only need 1GB of RAM (down from 1.5GB), while 4K devices need 1.5GB of RAM (down from 2GB).
• Lower memory requirements could pave the way for cheaper Android TV devices, particularly in emerging markets.

The Android operating system for smart TVs isn’t necessarily memory hungry, especially since TVs are not multitasking devices and often run only one app at a time. Google’s latest Google TV Streamer is an outlier among most major streaming devices, featuring 4GB of RAM, which is double what the tech giant offers with the 4K Google TV Chromecast and marks a 166 percent increase over the HD Chromecast with Google TV’s 1.5GB memory.

For reference, none of the Roku streaming devices feature more than 2GB of RAM, and the same goes for Amazon’s Fire TV sticks, with only Apple’s 2022-released 3rd-gen Apple TV 4K matching the Google TV Streamer with 4GB of RAM.

New TVs and streaming devices now launch almost exclusively with Google TV, leaving the tech giant’s older Android TV in the dust, even though some of Google TV’s new features have been ported back to Android TV. Google TV isn’t a new operating system, it is essentially a software layer that runs on top of Android TV. As of today, only the Google TV Streamer runs on Android TV 14, in addition to some TVs, while all other Android TV and Google TV devices are based on Android 12 (yes, Google skipped Android 13).

However, for new TVs and streaming devices slated to launch with Android TV 14, Google seems to be adjusting its hardware requirements. According to an Android Authority report by Mishaal Rahman, for HD TVs to be certified to run Android TV, they had to have at least 1.5GB of RAM, while the same minimum requirement was 2GB for 4K models. Now, these requirements have reportedly been lowered to 1GB and 1.5GB, respectively, prompting that Google might be looking at making the OS accessible on lower-priced devices.

This might prompt OEMs to release more affordable Android TV devices

Rahman indicated that the information comes via an unnamed trusted source, who also suggested that TVs hitting the minimum RAM requirement would need to declare themselves as “low memory devices” to benefit from Android TV’s low RAM optimizations, with Google reportedly working on further optimizing Android TV for low RAM devices.

For TVs and streaming devices launching with Google TV on top of Android TV, on the other hand, Google is reportedly maintaining a higher 2GB minimum, as confirmed in code changes in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) Gerrit. The change reiterates the lower RAM requirement for Android TV devices, considering that it lowers the minimum RAM allocation for Android TV emulator builds in Android Studio. Google TV builds, however, retain their 2GB minimum RAM requirement, prompting an Android TV push for affordable HD dongles or TVs targeting emerging markets, with Google TV being the more premium experience of the two.