Android 11 for Android TV preview leaks Made by Google dongle [Video]

Kyle Bradshaw | Jun 25 2020 - 8:30 am PT

This morning, Google surprised us all by releasing a developer preview of Android 11 for Android TV. Digging through the preview’s files, we found a video showing the upcoming Made by Google Android TV dongle.

In March, our Stephen Hall exclusively reported that Google is planning on releasing a successor to the Chromecast Ultra that was based on Android TV, marking the first Google-made Android TV device since the Nexus Player. Since then, specs and early marketing materials for this device, codenamed “Sabrina,” leaked out, revealing the dongle, its remote, and an apparent redesign of Android TV.

Fast forward to today, Google has just dropped a developer preview of Android 11, exclusive to the ADT-3 Android TV dongle. While our team is actively working to find and demonstrate the visible changes found in the preview, we’ve also combed through the files looking for any signs of “Sabrina.”

Among the more innocuous references to Sabrina, we’ve discovered a video walking through the process of restarting the dongle. Expectedly, just like the Chromecast devices before it, the recommended way to reboot the Made by Google Android TV dongle is to simply unplug it, wait three seconds, and plug it back in.

What’s more exciting is that the video verifies that the previously leaked marketing materials are real, as the dongle in the video is the same shape and has the same Google “G” logo.

So what else can we gather from this? It’s possible, though far from confirmed, that Google’s “Sabrina” Android TV dongle could be planned to launch with Android 11. This could make sense for the Made by Google team, as their Pixel phones typically launch on the most recent possible version of Android.

Conversely, though, Android 10 for Android TV has only just arrived via Google’s ADT-3 developer dongle as of December, making it unlikely the even newer Android 11 would be ready by the time this Made by Google dongle arrives later this year.