this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Don't own an android TV or box but can you really not change the default launcher natively?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I have a chromecast with Google tv and could natively install a launcher from the playstore and non playstore apps from file managers. I have no ads. Autoboot to my streaming app. Remapped remote buttons. All without using adb

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Running the streaming app on the Chromecast itself? Which app? Any links or references? I'd love to do something like this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I don't know the rules here I'll pm you.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Android TV is very limited compared to regular Android. It's hot garbage. Connecting a Bluetooth headset requires navigating through 4 levels of menus, it is missing several accessibility features such as audio balance settings, and has ads on the launcher. On top of that, it runs like shit even on a 4 core CPU.

Not that regular Android is much better.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The entire android tv UI is garbage. Lose internet while Disney plus or Netflix are loading? There's a good chance you need to force close them to make them work again. That's like 5 menus deep and doesn't make a lot of sense how to get there. Long press to bring up app info? Yeah right!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And the hardware is often total junk. There's a reason people still recommend the Shield, a device which is 5 years old and runs Android 9.

People here don't want to hear it, but using an Apple TV will ruin the experience for everything else from a hardware perspective. Software aside, of course. There's no reason for Android devices to exist on such sub par hardware. And yet....

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

The Shield Software Experience is version 9. The Android version is 11.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Of course you can. Even on the cheap pucks from Walmart. I run projectivy on those and my shield.

[–] Esqplorer 4 points 6 months ago

How long do you think we have before Projectivy is taken down?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

They don't make it easy, but it's not hard either. Flauncher + adb to change the default launcher ftw!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

You can with some tinkering. You can uninstall the default launcher with ADB shell and some Android TV show select launcher options when more than 1 is installed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Usually you have to either disable the default launcher with adb or you need to remap the home button to open a dofferent launcher.

I always go the adb route for everything. I also have UART access on my TV, so I can disable the setup wizard and avoid logging into anything or accepting any EULAs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

It takes literally no effort with ProjectIvy. It's just a menu selection in the new launcher to set it as default.

When I tried FLauncher it didn't have that convenient selection, and I'd have to adb in to set it as default. So I didn't end up using it.