That we are running out of memory on Android TV is not very complicated. And is that if it’s the operating system that comes standard with your TV, probably come standard with very few GB of free memory. In fact, from personal experience, I can attest that it’s usually around 8GB. Very little despite the fact that this is a device intended for streaming.
And precisely, streaming platforms are the ones that occupy the most. Not so much because of how the apps themselves are, but because they’re the ones we mostly use on Android TV. We will see below how much they occupy and what their problem may be.
Weight of Netflix, HBO Max, Twitch and company on Android TV
The exact weight of each application is difficult to know. It is not the same in all cases because it depends on the one hand on what the version weighs on Google Play at that moment and on the data that we store there. However, it is not that there are several too many. Taking **** as a reference the main platforms and what the application itself weighs plus the basic data with only logearnos in them, we find these bottoms:
- Amazon Prime Video: 95 MB
- AppleTV+: 55 MB
- Disney+: 70 MB
- Your movie: 40 MB
- FlixOlé: 30 MB
- HBO Max: 60 MB
- Movistar Plus+: 20 MB
- Netflix: 80 MB
- Pluto TV: 20 MB
- SkyShowtime: 30 MB
- Tic: 110 MB
- Youtube: 100 MB
As one can see, together they don’t reach 1 GB, but that can still be problematic. The first because they already occupy a good part of the internal storage and the second because apart from these apps, we surely have or we want to have other Android TV apps which have other approaches. Apart from what the operating system itself occupies.
Cache memory and the big problem of some streaming apps
Another issue we see with apps where data on how much they take up by default may be less relevant is that the space they occupy increases due to temporary files. This is called cache memory and, like in mobile phones, it is intended to store temporary elements of applications so that when they are opened, they take less time to load.
And while these files aren’t bad on their own and should help optimize performance, the truth is that they end up being counterproductive. There are apps like Twitch that are a real memory hog.
Although these are useful cached files, they tend to slow down the system and take up almost all the remaining space on the TV.
This is how it happens that suddenly it is easy to see that the memory is almost full and the effect of these files ends up being counterproductive. And it is that they end slow down the system and the app itself. On more than one occasion, I have come across precisely one Twitch app unable to open live streams.
Nevertheless, keeping these files at bay is essential. To empty the cache of applications on Android TV, there is a process similar to that carried out on mobile phones. All you have to do is open the settings, enter the ‘Applications’ section and, one by one, click on ‘Clear cache’.
Cover Image | android
In Xataka Android | Seven Android TV tips that I recommend to everyone after a year of testing this system