Nvidia is one of the few Android TV manufacturers that supports its devices for a substantial amount of time. The company announced that it would skip the Android 10 update for its Shield TV lineup but has since started beta testing the Nvidia Shield Experience 9 based on Android 11 on the devices. A few days ago, the company posted recovery images for the Shield Android TV 11 update, but it has since removed them.

We first learned about the potential Android TV 11 update when some users enrolled in the closed beta program spilled the information on Reddit. However, it turned out that these reports breached the terms of confidentiality required under Nvidia's beta program, resulting in most of them being deleted.

A few weeks later, a Google Play Console listing emerged, labeling all Shield TV models as supporting Android 11 and the associated SDK 30, further confirming that an update was indeed in the works. Perhaps most remarkably, the original 2015 Nvidia Shield TV was on the list of devices getting the update. It launched with Android 5 and saw upgrades to Android 7, Android 8, and Android 9, becoming one of the best-supported Android devices of all time. You can’t even say the same for the original Google Pixel.

Now last week, Nvidia’s download center briefly posted the Android 11 recovery images for the Shield TV lineup (per XDA Developers). The company has since taken down the images from its website, and the direct links no longer work. However, a user is reported to have installed the update, which brought Shield Experience 9 and the September 2021 security patch to his Shield TV (per 9to5Google).

It's safe to infer from these recovery images that Android TV 11 for the Shield TV line will launch soon. It’s expected to deliver many improvements, including native controller support, Google Assistant searchable apps, low latency media decoding, Google Play Instant, and more. The Android 11 based Shield Experience 9 will be available for the Shield TV 2019 and 2019 Pro, Shield TV 2017, and Shield TV 2015 and Pro 2015.

As great as the Android 11 update will be for the Nvidia Shield TV series, Google's already released Android 12 for the platform, but it's unclear when existing devices, including the Shields, will receive the upgrade.