Your Chromecast with Google TV will soon be updated to Android 12, but don’t expect much

Google’s Chromecast with Google TV did a wonderful job at stealing market share and owning a high adoption rate among original Chromecast users as well as those with competing devices. Perhaps because of this dominance, the company has been lazy with its updates. User profiles didn’t ship with it and were only recently added – two entire years after the dongle launched in stores and online. Additionally, it’s still running Android 10, the same exact operating system version it started with.

Interestingly, Google is now saying that in the near future (per 9to5Google), it will put out an Android 12 update for the Chromecast with Google TV that’s plugged into your living room television. Now, before you get too excited, I want to let you know that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the device will magically become faster like you’re probably imagining. In fact, Android 12 – despite its welcome appearance – won’t offer much at all to those who have suffered through low storage and lag frustrations in recent years.

Actually, all that you’ll really get with Android 12 is a few extra privacy features, bug fixes, and a higher resolution user interface. I’m not saying those things aren’t important, but I am saying that I hope Google surprises us with some form of storage management or optimization tricks specific to the dongle to help alleviate these problems.

We’ll of course have to wait and see, but I really don’t think there are any signs of such a thing since Android 12 is already in our hands via the Pixel phones, and its tools and features are well documented. With the launch of the new Chromecast with Google TV HD that’s now available for $29.99 USD, it’s clear that what we had hoped was a much more powerful device with larger storage is now just a dream that never came true. Lastly, if you use your Chromecast to emulate retro games, Android 12’s scoped storage may make it much more difficult going forward.