Reports for a beta Nvidia Shield Experience 9.0.0 update have been spotted online — most of which have since been deleted. Apparently, Nvidia's beta testers have started to get the update, said to be based on Android 11 for Android TV, but failed to follow the terms of confidentiality required under Nvidia's beta program.

chrome_7uMFFUs780

A cached version of the deleted post.

We've spotted one removed report on Reddit, though a tipster (thanks: Prabjot Singh) claims there have been a few other similar posts to the Nvidia Shield subreddit, since deleted. A cached version of the post indicates that the new update may not look noticeably different compared to the prior version. Android TV's changes in recent years have been mainly under the hood, excluding the larger Google TV launcher redesign that landed with the Chromecast with Google TV. In fact, Nvidia even said it was skipping Android 10 for Android TV precisely because there was so little difference between releases.

The person on the original post confirms they had opted in on Nvidia's closed beta testing program. However, the submission was sanitized after being called out for violating the confidentiality agreement imposed by Nvidia on beta testers. Other details at this point are unknown, and there's no telling when the update might roll out more widely or what sort of features to anticipate when it does. But if it's entered beta testing, we may not have too long to wait and see.