🧹 Removes the junk
Bloatware, ads and sponsored rows, gone. |
📺 A calm home screen
Your apps, your HDMI inputs and a clock. Nothing else. |
↩️ Undo anytime
Apps are turned off, never deleted. |
Watch it work
▶ Claude Made My Old Android TV Feel Brand New · the full setup on a real TV, in 4 minutes.
Get started
1. Turn on developer mode on the TV.
Settings → Device Preferences → About → press Build 7 times. Then turn on USB debugging in Developer options. Stuck?
2. Open Claude Code or Codex on your laptop.
The laptop and TV must be on the same Wi-Fi.
3. Paste this in.
Help me clean up my Android TV and make it faster.
My TV is a <brand and model>.
1. Connect to my TV over Wi-Fi. Walk me through anything
I need to tap on the TV.
2. Before changing anything, list every app in plain English:
safe to turn off, needed by the TV, and apps I use.
Check free memory.
3. Ask me before every change. Turn apps off instead of
deleting them. Keep a list of what you changed and how
to undo it.
4. Never turn off: Google Play services
(com.google.android.gms), Google Play, Settings,
System UI, setup apps, the keyboard, Bluetooth, my HDMI
inputs, the TV's input and tuner framework, or anything
else the TV needs to start. If you're not sure, leave
it on. The one exception: if install.sh offers to turn
off Google TV's setup app because it's taking over Home,
ask me first.
5. Install the home screen: download
https://github.com/Ansub/tv-detox and run its
install.sh with my TV and these apps: <your apps>.
6. Turn off animations and the screensaver, and make the TV
sleep after 5 minutes.
7. Wait 30 seconds after the last change, then restart the
TV once and check it starts up normally before you say
you're done. Show me free memory before
and after.
That's it. It asks you before every change.
[!NOTE]
This is what worked for us, not professional advice. Use it at your own risk. You're responsible for your own TV, and I'm not liable if something goes wrong.
Help
How do I turn on developer mode?
- On the TV, open Settings, then Device Preferences (or System), then About.
- Press OK on Build 7 times until you see "You are now a developer."
- Go back, open Developer options and turn on USB debugging. If you see Network debugging or Wireless debugging, turn that on too.
- The first time your laptop connects, the TV asks "Allow debugging?" Tick "Always allow" and press Allow.
Menus differ a bit by brand. If you're stuck, ask Claude or Codex: "I have a <brand and model> TV. How can you connect to it from my laptop and take control of it?"
Which TVs does it work on?
Android TV 9 (a real TV), 11 and 12, and Google TV 14. Every change is tested automatically on emulators.
Can I do this on a Fire TV, Roku, Samsung or LG?
- Amazon Fire TV: partly. Fire TV is Android underneath, so the cleanup works. Amazon blocks changing the home screen on current Fire TVs, so you keep Amazon's. Tell Claude what you want to keep, like Alexa voice search on the remote.
- Roku: no. Roku runs its own system, not Android, so nothing can connect to it to turn things off.
- Samsung (Tizen): no, for the same reason.
- LG (webOS): no. You can still cut down the ads by turning off Home Promotion and Content Recommendation in the TV's home settings.
If your TV or streaming box runs Android TV or Google TV, it should work. That includes many Sony, TCL, Hisense, Philips and Xiaomi TVs, Chromecast with Google TV and Nvidia Shield. Some of those brands also sell Roku or other non-Android models, so check Settings > About if you're not sure.
What about projectors or Android phones?
- Android projectors: probably. If it has Developer options and USB debugging, the cleanup should work. Cheap projectors often run a custom Android, so the home screen may act a bit differently.
- Android phones: only the cleanup. The home screen is made for a TV remote, not touch.
Anything to watch out for on Chromecast with Google TV?
It runs the same Google TV this is tested on, so it should work. People who've done it report two things:
- The YouTube button on the remote can stop working, and some lose casting. Tell Claude to keep casting on if you use it.
- Google TV can bring its own home screen back. If that happens, ask Claude to turn off Google TV's home screen. Leave its setup app on unless it's taking over Home (see below).
Home opens Google TV's setup screen instead (Sony BRAVIA and others)
On some Google TVs, once Google TV's home screen (com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx) is off, Android picks the setup app (com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith) for Home instead. install.sh spots this and asks before turning the setup app off too. It only asks if Home opens exactly that app, Google TV's home screen is already off and the TV has finished its first setup. YES=1 doesn't turn it off; use YES_SETUP=1 for that. This worked on a Sony BRAVIA, but it hasn't been tested on every TV. undo.sh turns it back on.
To undo it by hand:
adb shell pm enable com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith
adb shell pm enable com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx
If the TV ever asks to be set up again, or a setup screen won't finish, turn the setup app back on first.
The Claude app says it can't reach my TV
The chat in the Claude app (and claude.ai) runs on Anthropic's servers, not on your laptop, so it can't see your TV. You need something that runs on your own laptop: Claude Code or Codex.
Don't want to pay for either? Skip the AI and use install.sh instead (see "Can I install the home screen without AI?" below).
Can I do it from my phone, without a laptop?
Not yet. Claude has to run on a computer on the same network as your TV. A phone hotspot is fine as that network, as long as the laptop and TV both join it.
My TV is on Ethernet, not Wi-Fi
That works the same. Your laptop talks to the TV over its IP address on your home network, so cable or Wi-Fi doesn't matter. The laptop just has to be on the same network. You'll find the TV's IP in its network settings, or ask Claude to find it.
Can I just do the cleanup and keep my TV's home screen?
Yes. Leave out step 5 of the prompt ("Install the home screen"). Your TV looks the same, just with the junk turned off.
Why not just use Projectivy Launcher?
You can. The cleanup is the part that makes the TV faster, and it works with any home screen. This one is here if you want something tiny and open source: one screen, no ads, no account, about 30 MB of RAM.
The TV still opens Live TV or HDMI when it turns on
That's a TV setting, not this home screen. Ask it: "My TV opens Live TV at startup instead of the home screen. Find that setting and turn it off."
A button on the remote stopped working
Some remote buttons are handled by the TV's own home screen or by apps the cleanup turned off. To see which app handles which button, ask Claude: "Run adb shell dumpsys window policy and tell me which apps my remote's global keys go to." If it's an app other than your TV's home screen, turn that app back on.
The YouTube button on some Google TVs (seen on Xiaomi and Vu): it goes to Google TV's own home screen, which install.sh turns off, so the button does nothing. Turning that home screen back on brings the button back, but your TV may then open Google TV's home screen again instead of this one. Until there's a safe fix, open YouTube from its tile on the home screen.
An update turned something back on
sh check.sh <TV_IP> # check the home screen is still in charge
sh check.sh <TV_IP> --fix # and fix it
sh check.sh <TV_IP> --fix my-tv.txt # also check your own list of changes
Your list has one change per line, like off com.example.app, global window_animation_scale 0 or device_config activity_manager max_cached_processes 4. Ask Claude to write it from the changes it made.
Can I install the home screen without AI?
Yes. You only need adb. On a Mac, run brew install android-platform-tools. On Windows, download Google's SDK Platform Tools, unzip it, and run the commands below from Git Bash. Download this repo, then:
sh install.sh <TV_IP> # picks your TV apps for you
sh install.sh <TV_IP> "com.netflix.ninja,com.hulu.livingroomplus" # or choose them
sh install.sh <TV_IP> "" "bluetooth,sound,picture" # add settings shortcuts
Most TVs keep opening their own home screen, so the script offers to turn that off. Nothing is uninstalled.
How do I change the apps on the home screen?
Use the remote. Hold OK on an app (or press Menu) to:
- Move it: use the arrows to slide it to a new spot, then press OK to finish.
- Replace it: pick another app to take its place.
- Remove it from the home screen. The app stays installed, and you can add it back any time.
- Uninstall it, for apps you installed yourself. The TV asks you to confirm first.
- App info, for apps that came with the TV. They can't be uninstalled, but from there you can turn them off.
To add an app, pick the Add app tile in the bottom row. Add as many apps as you like: they wrap into rows of six, and the page scrolls once there are more than twelve. Your changes are kept until you run install.sh with a new app list.
Can I get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth one press away?
Yes. A small network icon always sits next to the clock. It shows Wi-Fi (with signal bars), Ethernet or a crossed-out Wi-Fi when you're offline, and opens your network settings. Bluetooth, Sound and Picture shortcuts can join it. They're off unless you ask for them:
sh install.sh <TV_IP> "" "bluetooth,sound,picture" # pick any of them, in any order
sh install.sh <TV_IP> "" "none" # take them away
Press Up from your apps to reach them. A shortcut your TV has no screen for is left out. On TCL TVs, Sound and Picture open TCL's own panels.
How do I undo it?
sh undo.sh <TV_IP>
This turns your TV's own home screen back on and removes this one. To undo the cleanup too, ask Claude or Codex to reverse everything on its list.
My TV is stuck restarting
Your laptop can often still connect for a few seconds each time the TV starts. Use that to turn everything back on:
adb connect <TV_IP>
adb wait-for-device
adb shell pm list packages -d
That lists everything that's turned off. Turn each one back on with adb shell pm enable <package>, or all of them at once:
for p in $(adb shell pm list packages -d | tr -d '\r' | sed 's/package://'); do adb shell pm enable "$p"; done
To undo just the home screen, run sh undo.sh <TV_IP>. Then restart the TV. You can redo the cleanup later, one app at a time.
If the laptop never connects, use the TV's recovery mode or a factory reset. How you get there depends on the brand and model, so check your TV maker's support page.
For developers: build it yourself
- Put your default apps in
apps.txt (package names, one per line). You can also pass them to install.sh instead.
- Install Java 17 and the Android SDK. On a Mac:
brew install openjdk@17
brew install --cask android-commandlinetools
sdkmanager "platforms;android-34" "build-tools;34.0.0"
sh build.sh, then sh install.sh <TV_IP> installs your build instead of the release.sh ci/smoke-test.sh <TV_IP or emulator> checks it all works.
HDMI inputs are found on their own. The labels follow the TV's language, with 16 languages built in. To add yours or fix a translation, edit src/com/ansub/tvhome/Strings.java. Keep key.jks, which is made on your first build: updates must be signed with the same key.
It's one screen of plain Java, no libraries, no Gradle. The background is drawn once, the only animation is the focus lift, and it uses about 30 MB of RAM.
Contributing
Pull requests are welcome for fixes that keep working on every TV. This project sticks to official apps and Android's own settings, so changes that add ad blockers or unofficial apps won't be merged. If you want those, fork it and make it yours.
Made by Ansub Khan. I build things like this with AI every week.
Watch on YouTube →
MIT License
TV Detox is a tiny ad-free home screen launcher for Android TV, paired with a prompt you run through Claude Code or Codex that connects to your TV and strips out bloatware, ads and sponsored rows to make an old, slow TV fast again.