How to

An ad-free smart TV

The home screen of a smart TV is more and more a shop window: large recommendations, sponsored rows and previews that play by themselves. On an Android TV or Google TV you can replace that with a calm home screen with only your own apps.

Where the ads come from

• The home screen itself fetches recommendations and featured films from Google and the streaming services.
• Components of the manufacturer, such as its own start page or its own channel with recommendations.
• Apps running along in the background to fill the rows on the home screen. That also costs speed (see Slow Android TV: causes and solutions).

What VYS TV does

VYS TV replaces the standard home screen with its own home screen with rows of the apps you choose, your own texts and a background photo. The standard home screen and the components with recommendations are turned off, and streaming apps no longer run silently in the background. See the before and after example on the home page.

What remains

To be fair: ads inside a streaming app, such as ads before or during a film on a plan with ads, come from that app itself. VYS TV does not remove those. This is about the home screen and everything the TV itself shows around it.

Works on

• TVs, sticks and boxes with Android TV or Google TV, such as Sony Bravia, Philips, TCL, the Xiaomi Mi TV Stick and Chromecast with Google TV.
• Not on Samsung, LG, Roku, Amazon Fire TV or Apple TV: they do not have Android TV.

Per brand: Remove ads on a TCL TV, Remove recommendations on a Philips Android TV, Remove recommendations on a Sony Bravia.

How to start

1. Turn on the developer options and USB debugging on the TV; the app shows where for each brand (see Enable developer options on your TV).
2. Connect the VYS TV app on your iPhone to the TV via Wi-Fi.
3. Tap Optimise TV speed.
4. Arrange your home screen: rows, your own texts and a background photo.

Going back to the old home screen is a single tap; the backup of the original is always kept.

Questions

Further reading