If the Google TV Streamer has a solid Bluetooth stack, I’m sold

I’ve been through more streaming dongles than I care to count. And most of them delivered on the stuff they were meant to, providing a seamless way to watch the endless entertainment that is at all of our fingertips at this point.

One of the parts of the equation that most of these streaming dongles flat-out fail at, however, is the ability to use them to play one of the now 2000 games available for GeForce NOW. Sure, most of them can install and run the app, but they all stumble at one of the most important parts of the experience: Bluetooth controller lag.

It’s a problem that has plagued every single Google TV dongle I’ve tested, and it’s a shame. I get it: Bluetooth on a streaming dongle is largely there to make sure your remote works well. It doesn’t have to be real-time and lag free as long as you can navigate the UI.

Without fail, however, all of these devices (Google’s own Chromecasts and the non-Google devices, too) come with a noticeable lag when you hook up a controller. Stadia got around this by having your controller hook up via Wi-Fi directly to the same server that was delivering your game. But that’s not really an option with something like GeForce NOW, and I feel like there’s a simple solution that would fix all of this.

Please Google, put a good Bluetooth stack in the Google TV Streamer

All Google needs to do is put a solid Bluetooth stack in the Google TV Streamer and I’m ready to spend that $100. The performance for general UI stuff should be a big improvement over previous hardware, and I’m eager for a device that can combine that slick UI with a usable, reliable portal to GeForce NOW on the big screen.

It’s totally possible and has already been done. The NVIDIA Shield TV is a perfect example of a streaming device that puts a priority on gaming. GeForce NOW is too good to not be truly available on these streaming devices, and with the massive library of games available, I’m sure I’m not the only one who would love to use the Google TV Streamer as a seamless gateway to play a few games from time to time.

As long as the hardware and firmware are in place, there’s no reason this can’t be a full-blown reality. Until we have one here in the office, I simply can’t know if Google addressed this shortcoming in their hardware. But I’m hopeful they did. And if so, I’m looking very forward to being able to sit back, relax, and play a bit of Apex Legends on the couch via GeForce NOW in the coming weeks.