• Extras@lemmy.today
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    11 months ago

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

    • Something Burger 🍔@jlai.lu
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        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!

        • glockenspiel@programming.dev
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          11 months ago

          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…

    • WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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

    • Jiří Král@discuss.tchncs.de
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      11 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.

    • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
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      11 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.

    • Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 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.