Android Oreo rolling out now to NVIDIA Shield TV (Update: On hold due to software issues)

Update (05/31): NVIDIA has halted the Oreo rollout for Shield TV devices after stumbling upon a few issues. Writing on the official GeForce forums (via Android Police), an NVIDIA support representative noted that the update, which is confusingly called the Shield TV Experience Upgrade 7.0, will be temporarily suspended as the company looks to “resolve the issues that have been encountered.”

It’s unclear how long it will take for the problems to be fixed, but NVIDIA is optimistic that it will be able to “restart the rollout shortly.”

Original post (05/24): The NVIDIA Shield TV is Android Authority’s favorite media streamer (yes, even better than Roku), and now it’s about to get even better. Starting now, NVIDIA is pushing out Android 8.0 Oreo to all NVIDIA Shield TV boxes.

The new Android 8.0 features are wrapped in NVIDIA’s skin for the streamer called Shield Experience Upgrade 7.0. We realize that’s confusing, but we wanted to make sure you understand that if you get an update that says Shield Experience 7.0, that’s not Android 7.0 Nougat, but rather Android 8.0 Oreo.

The update is rolling out today, but it could be a few days before you see it.

So what’s new in Shield Experience Upgrade 7.0? For starters, NVIDIA revamped the entire UI. Now, when you fire up your Shield TV, you’ll be presented with a fully-customizable interface featuring all your apps, media channels, and games on one page.

You can choose your favorite apps to appear at the top of the queue, and you can move around the subsections to your liking. You’ll also see movies and TV shows that you’ve started but haven’t finished, and see suggestions from channels and apps of media you might enjoy.

You can also organize your apps in a new way where your favorite shows on each app are put first in line. Once again, this is totally customizable; you can move these around as much as you like.

Only specific apps can use this feature, but it looks like all the major ones are there: Amazon Prime Video, Plex, Netflix, HBO Go, Hulu, etc.

Along with these new features, there are also some more general Android security updates, some firmware upgrades for accessories (like the Shield controllers), and general stability fixes.

You can see the changelog as well as a more in-depth overview of the new features here.

NEXT: You’ll soon be able to stream your entire (probably illegal) movie library on Chromecast