The next Google TV Streamer is being built with microphones on the box, so it can take a "Hey Google" without you reaching for the remote. 9to5Google says development is underway. There's no launch date, and there's no price for the new unit.
The Streamer you can buy today launched in September 2024. The Verge scored that model 9 out of 10, and it puts the current price at $149. You can still buy that box. It has a product name. Google hasn't given the successor one.
A narrower box that listens
The same general design comes back narrower, with microphone openings on the slanted, pill-shaped top. The report doesn't give a measurement for that width, so you can't tell how much came off, or whether you'd notice it from the couch. Presence sensing is the other hardware addition. The name means the hardware is supposed to notice a person nearby. The leak stops at the name. It doesn't say what would change on screen when someone walks in, and it doesn't say whether you can switch the sensing off. Until there's a description of what the sensor does, you can't weigh it the way you can weigh the $149 on the current box.
The leak is the first account of microphones built into the Streamer itself, so the box can hear you the way a smart speaker does.
If you already own the 2024 Streamer, the report doesn't replace it. The remote still carries the command, and a second unit is still the reviewed model at $149. The successor stays a development project: a slimmer case, mics on the top, a presence sensor, and no product name from Google. Without that name you don't get a page, a price, or a date, and a store has nothing to put on the shelf next to the box you can buy today. One of these devices is finished and for sale, with a public review. The other is a shape and two senses, still inside the company.
If you need a Google TV box this month, buy the current Streamer and treat the successor as unfinished. If you specifically want microphones on the device, hold until Google puts a name on the hardware.
Photo: Y2kcrazyjoker4 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
