Android TV 13 Adds ‘Low Power Standby Mode’ To Reduce Power Consumption

Last Updated on April 18, 2022 by Anu Joy

With Android 13 coming soon to your smartphones, your Android TVs are also set to get some new features with the upcoming update. To recall, last year’s Android TV 12 offered a variety of improvements such as a redesigned UI, support for 4K UI rendering, as well as dynamic refresh rate switching. The upcoming Android TV 13 is set to add one more feature to its arsenal—a new “low power standby” mode.

Android TV 13 Low Power Standby Mode

First spotted by Esper’s Mishaal Rahman, Android TV 13’s “low power standby” adds restrictions to apps while the device is in standby. Wakelocks are disabled and network access is blocked when low power standby is active. These restrictions are temporarily lifted only during doze maintenance windows.

This is a welcome feature as you don’t need notifications or access to the internet when the TV screen is switched off. This feature will be disabled by default for non-Android TV configurations.

Also Read: Android TV 12 Released: Complete List Of New Features

Android TV 13 PiP Improvements

Additionally, Android 13 will allow developers to create PiP windows that are even longer and wider than before. Currently, Android TV 12 sets the the aspect ratio of a PiP window to 1.777778:1 (16:9) by default. It also lets developers set a custom aspect ratio between 1:2.39 to 2.39:1. In the current version, PiP windows can be moved around, resized, and moved to the side.

Moreover, Google will soon allow devs to specify a preference to “dock big overlays like the expanded picture-in-picture on TV”. Although Android TV does not currently support multi-window features except for PiP, Android 13 might offer a pseudo-split-screen mode with docked, expanded PiP windows.

Android TV 13 Expected Release Timeline

Last year’s Android TV 12 rolled out to devices a month after Android 12 launched. We can expect the release of Android TV 13 to follow a similar schedule this year as well, with a release in November. However, it may take a while for OEMs to roll out the latest Android build to their devices.