If you thought the Android phone market was fragmented and many phones were outdated, take a look at the Android TV landscape and be shocked. Many devices are still running outdated versions, and Android 11 has barely reached any TV so far. But Google is already going full steam ahead with Android TV 12 — the company has released the developer preview in tandem with the mobile version of the OS.

Like the mobile developer preview, this version is only meant for developers wanting to get their apps ready for the upcoming stable release and shouldn't be used as a daily driver. As such, it's only available on Google's TV dev kit, the ADT-3 — most folks will probably not have their hands on it. Google hasn't shared many details on what's new with Android TV 12, but we do know that developers will be able to get their hands on the new Google TV interface. We might also be looking at the same expanded codec support that's coming to Android 12, but that's yet to be confirmed.

The Android TV 12 developer preview could signal Google's renewed effort to take its TV platform seriously. The Android TV 11 pre-release only became available in June last year, a few months after the initial Android 11 developer preview for phones. I wouldn't be surprised if the Chromecast with Google TV is at least part of the reason — Google now has its own consumer hardware to showcase the software.

For more about the Android 12 launch, check out our announcement post detailing what's new here. If you want to install the developer preview on your own device, find out how in our Android 12 download guide.

Source: Google