Clean Your TV

Strip the bloatware from any Android TV or Google TV over Wi-Fi, and replace the ad-filled home screen with a clean launcher that looks like an Apple TV. No root, no cable, nothing uninstalled, and a one-line restore if you change your mind. This repo was called tv-vibehack until 19 October 2026; old links still work.

It started as an afternoon fixing my parents' Mi TV, which showed them an advert before they could reach Netflix. The whole thing was done with Claude Code talking to the real TV, and the prompt that did it is in this repo so you can do the same with yours.

How it works

Android TVs have the same debug bridge as Android phones. Once you switch on USB debugging in the TV's developer options, the TV listens on your Wi-Fi and asks you once to allow your computer. After that, everything is standard Android tooling:

1. Back up the list of installed packages and settings.
2. Disable the manufacturer's telemetry, ad services, content rows and preloaded junk with pm disable-user. Nothing is uninstalled, so a restore script can undo every step.
3. Install a small native launcher and make it the default home screen.

The bloat differs by brand, which is why the prompt asks your coding assistant to discover it on your TV and ask you before touching anything you might use.