Next Google TV Streamer wakes on your approach with room info

The Google TV Streamer upgrade centers on four changes, according to a report from 9to5Google that other outlets have since repeated. Google has not confirmed any of them.

• Microphones on the box. Small openings on the slanted, pill-shaped top would let it hear “Hey Google” without the remote. These are far-field mics, the kind smart speakers use to pick up voices from across a room.
• Presence sensing. The box would detect when someone enters the room and react, more on that below.
• More power and space. A faster processor and more storage than the current 32GB. The report doesn’t name the chip or the new capacity.
• A tweaked remote. The same basic shape, with two new shortcut buttons next to the YouTube and Netflix keys.

The design would look familiar, just a little narrower. The Find My Remote button, which makes a lost remote chime, reportedly stays on the back of the box.

Presence sensing means the streamer can tell that a person has come into the room, without you pressing anything. In the reported version, walking in would start a Google Photos slideshow on the TV. Moving closer to the screen would bring up ambient details such as the time and the local forecast.

That’s how smart displays like Google’s Nest Hub behave, and it’s the big idea here: turning any TV into something closer to a giant smart display. TCL already sells Google TV sets with a similar room-sensing feature. Putting it in a separate box would bring it to nearly any TV with an HDMI port, including older sets.

Not everyone will want a TV that wakes on its own, of course. Google hasn’t said whether the feature can be switched off or how it detects people, so those are questions to watch for at launch.

For most households, the first question is cost. The current Google TV Streamer launched in September 2024 at $99.99. On August 31 this year, Google raised it to $149.99 in the US, blaming rising component costs. Nest cameras and doorbells went up too, by smaller amounts. Some retailers kept selling the box for less for a while, but $149.99 is now the list price.

No price has leaked for the new model. Higher memory and storage prices are pushing up the cost of many gadgets this year, so it would be a surprise if a box with more storage, new mics and new sensors came in cheaper.

Then there’s privacy. A box with always-ready microphones and a sensor that knows when you’re home is a different thing from a remote you hold down to talk. Smart speakers already work this way, and they usually include a mute switch and settings to review voice history. It’s worth checking that the new Streamer offers the same before you set one up in a family room.

Apple has already made this move. Its fourth-generation Apple TV 4K, which Apple took preorders for from October 13 and ships on November 13 for $299, has three far-field microphones so you can talk to Siri without picking up the remote. Apple says echo cancellation helps it hear you over whatever is playing.

Google’s current box can’t do that. It runs Gemini for TV, which began replacing Google Assistant on the Streamer in November 2025, but you still have to press the mic button on the remote. Today’s model has 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos, and doubles as a smart home hub with Thread and Matter support.

So the rumored upgrade would close the most obvious gap with Apple at half the price, if Google keeps its price anywhere near today’s level.

If your current streaming stick works, wait. There’s no confirmed launch date, and the jump from the old Chromecast with Google TV to the first Streamer took four years. Google could move faster this time, but nothing official says so.

If your old device is failing, the current Streamer is still a solid box, and seasonal sales sometimes knock it below list price. Just know that a hands-free model appears to be on the way. And if you live mostly in Apple’s world and want voice control from the couch today, the new Apple TV 4K is the only box of the two that does it.