It’s been a long, long time for such a huge selling feature to be officially added to the Android TV that we’d begun thinking that Google had nixed the rollout. Thankfully, the search giant has confirmed that it’s bringing an official Stadia client to Android TV, including the Chromecast with Google TV stick and others in a couple of week’s time.
The Stadia client will be able to be downloaded to any Android TV device, although only a handful are officially supported at this time. That won’t stop you from enabling the “experimental support” toggle in Settings so you can open the app on your particular Android TV device, though so long as you understand that the experience might not be optimal.
Here are the initial batch of supported devices:
- Chromecast with Google TV
- Hisense Android Smart TVs (U7G, U8G, U9G)
- Nvidia Shield TV
- Nvidia Shield TV Pro
- Onn FHD Streaming Stick and UHD Streaming Device
- Philips 8215, 8505, and OLED 935/805 Series Android TVs
- Xiaomi MIBOX3 and MIBOX4
You’ll still need a Stadia Controller or compatible Bluetooth controller (Xbox, PS4, etc) to play Stadia titles on your Android TV device but at least the entry-level is more accessible. To get started, install the Stadia app from the Play Store, launch it from the “My Apps” row on your TV, and press “Continue” at the opt-in screen.
