Google TV update will speed up performance and automatically free up storage on Chromecast

Ben Schoon | Aug 22 2022 - 9:00 am PT

The Chromecast with Google TV launched to mostly positive feedback, but the product has since been hit by performance and, even more so, storage problems. Now, a new update is working to address both of these concerns.

Google is today announcing a new update for the Chromecast with Google TV and other Google TV devices that will address the two core problems with the Chromecast and the platform as a whole – storage and performance.

Storage issues on the Chromecast with Google TV have been widely known for quite some time. Just months after launch, our Kyle Bradshaw commented that he could no longer install apps on his Chromecast due to the limited 8GB of storage space, only 4GB of which is available to the user. Performance, meanwhile, has never been quite ideal, as we noted in our review:

The performance here is what I’d called adequate. It’s not impressive by any measurement, but it runs relatively smooth without any major hiccups… Where I really saw a bottleneck in Chromecast’s performance was with the Google TV homescreen.

Now, Google is at least trying to address these hardware problems through some software solutions.

Chromecast with Google TV, almost two years later – Poorly aging hardware betrays the good OS

Starting with storage, Google is highlighting a new “Free up space” button in Google TV’s settings menu. This first appeared on Chromecast with Google TV last year, but it’s now expanding to smart TVs running Google TV.

*‘Free up storage’ as pictured on Chromecast with Google TV*

Google TV will also now see some “under-the-hood” tweaks to storage. The goal is to reduce how often users see storage-related error messages, such as when trying to install a new app. Google hasn’t gone into detail into what those changes entail, but the company says in the post that the platform will also introduce new automated processes to clear up storage space on the user’s behalf. Google tells us over email that these storage savings are coming from app cache files as well as ART/OAT artifacts.

Meanwhile, on the performance front, Google TV on Chromecast and other devices should start running more smoothly going forward. The homescreen will now launch faster thanks to “CPU optimizations and improvements to cache management.” Google further says that the “For You” and “Live” tabs will load up faster going forward. Image caching improvements supposedly also improve the speed of switching to the Kids Profiles.

Finally, Google says that Google TV will use less RAM overall going forward, leaving more memory for apps and background processes, which should boost performance on the whole.

There’s no direct timeline on when these changes will arrive, but Chromecast with Google TV already has the “Free up storage” option, as pictured above. Remaining changes will arrive through full OTA upgrades, launcher updates, and other delivery methods.