After the demise of Windows Phone (Windows 10 Mobile), the choice of smartphone OS among users are pretty much restricted to Android and iOS. However, the smart TV segment is rather complicated.

Besides the TV optimized version of Android (Android TV), we have LG’s webOS, Samsung’s Tizen and tons of no-name Chinese manufacturers running a custom edition of Linux inside their so-called ‘smart TV’.

android_tv_official_website

While the adoption rate of Android TV among OEMs is increasing, Xiaomi decided to take a different move. Their first generation of Mi TVs, especially the global/Indian variants, featured something called ‘PatchWall’ – a highly modified skin based on Android.

mi_tv_patchwal_tweet

Xiaomi packed a handful of innovative features inside the skin, but the lack of Android TV compatibility and missing Google Play Store turned out to be disastrous for them.

The company quickly announced to bring Android Oreo based update with built-in Chromecast and Play Services by 2019 to console their customers.

mi_tv_4a_flipkart_android_tv_update
The description has been silently removed from the product listing (Click/Tap to zoom)

Well, we are on the second half of 2019, but there is no such update from Xiaomi. The Chinese OEM has already added new models in their product portfolio, and they do come with proper Android  TV support.

Frustrated Mi TV 4/4A owners are slamming the company in their official forum as well as social media, but the effective output is nil.

mi_tv_android_tv_update_forum_poll
An on-going poll regarding Android TV update for older Mi TVs (Click/Tap to zoom)

Time for the good news!

Seems that Xiaomi has not abandoned their customers, as the company officials are now teasing about internal beta builds of Android TV based update for Mi TV 4A (both 32 and 43 inches models).

mi_tv_4a_android_tv_beta_manmohan_tweet
Source

We have also digged into the Play certified device list from Google and spotted a number of new references of related to legacy Mi TV (4/4A) models.

mi_tv_android_tv_update_google_play_certified
Click/Tap to zoom

We are not sure whether Xiaomi will create a public beta testing phase before rolling out the final stable update or not, but these entries are enough to speculate that the long-anticipated Android TV is finally coming to old Mi TV 4A/4 units.

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.

Tags

Mi TV
user-profile user-profile

Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

Next article View Article
Android

[April 10: Official acknowledgement for recommended videos bug] YouTube Library tab broken and sidebar missing, users say

This story is being continuously updated…. New updates are being added at the bottom….. Original story (from 2019) follows: Incoming are reports related to two separate YouTube-related issues. The...
Apr 10, 2020 0 Min Read