Paired with a button remapper and set as default, I honestly haven’t seen the stock Android interface in years. (Like you, I’ve also used ADB to disable telemetry etc on TV, and replaced google play with Fdroid and Aurora)
PS: For the uninitiated, these are also worth installing:
Lets you connect a hard drive to your router and create your own local media streaming frontend ala Netflix (or plug your hard drive / USB stick directly into your TV; it doesn’t care).
While it lacks some of the polish, it’s simpler than Jellyfin or Plex.
Good call!
I’d also like to share another option for folks: Flauncher. I’ve been using it for a few years - it’s very clean and lightweight.
You can set it as the default using ADB commands, or install it directly from the Play Store and use adhoc.
https://gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher
Paired with a button remapper and set as default, I honestly haven’t seen the stock Android interface in years. (Like you, I’ve also used ADB to disable telemetry etc on TV, and replaced google play with Fdroid and Aurora)
PS: For the uninitiated, these are also worth installing:
https://smarttubeapp.github.io/
Gives you ad-free YouTube and then some.
https://f-droid.org/packages/org.courville.nova/
Lets you connect a hard drive to your router and create your own local media streaming frontend ala Netflix (or plug your hard drive / USB stick directly into your TV; it doesn’t care).
While it lacks some of the polish, it’s simpler than Jellyfin or Plex.
Until sept 2026…
Do you really think Google will approve those APKs once they have fully lockdown android (that includes Google TV)?
That’s why this push from google to kill the APK installation without their blessing infuriates me!
https://keepandroidopen.org/
yeah, we’ll be working on grapheneOS tv boxes in a years time.
I will 100% jump over to it if that does turn into a thing