android: How Android TV 13 may make your smart TVs more efficient – Times of India

A few notable changes are expected to be added to Android TV 13 as Google prepares to announce its upcoming OS for smart TVs. According to an XDA Developers report, Android 13 will include a new “low-power standby mode” designed for Android TVs. The report suggests that this feature will disable wake-locks and when active it will also restrict apps from accessing the network. This will be a helpful addition as apps don’t need to create unnecessary wake-locks or access the internet when the smart TV is on standby mode or is completely switched off.
This new feature is also expected to reduce bandwidth usage and lower the smart TV’s energy consumption. Google will make sure that the apps don’t completely break in this mode as the restrictions will be temporarily removed during doze windows. Apart from the low-power standby mode, Android 13 will also upgrade the picture-in-picture (PiP) mode.
The support for PiP mode is already included in Android TV where users can try the mode with a default aspect ratio of 1.777778:1, apt for displaying 16:9 content. However, developers can create PiP windows with an aspect ratio less than 1:2.39 or greater than 2.39:1 depending on their preference.
The report suggests that Google will further enhance this feature in Android TV 13. The new feature will allow developers to create PiP windows smaller or greater than the mentioned aspect ratio. Moreover, a new Activity method in Android 13 hints to make “both windows obvious to the user” as it will be able to dock the PiP box alongside the main activity.
Traditionally, Google rolls out a new version of Android TV a couple of months after releasing the alpha build of its latest Android on which the TV OS is based. In 2021, Google released Android TV 12 about a month after the company unveiled the new Pixel phones running on Android 12. Android TV 13 can be expected to be announced in November if the tech giant sticks to last year’s timeline. Moreover, most manufacturers take time to roll out a new build of Android TV after Google releases its latest TV platform, so users might have to wait a bit more before being able to try these new features.