Possible to Replace Launcher or override home button on Oreo/Shield?

by NoNoveltyNeeded

I tried to search for a solution to this but only found things 2+ years old so I'm not sure if any of it is still relevant. Anyway, I migrated to Shield from a dedicated HTPC that used Kodi as a frontend. I love my Shield, and love Kodi, but it really is more of a frontend or launcher than an app itself. So is it possible to make it so the home button on my remote goes to Kodi rather than leanback? if it helps at all, I use a Harmony remote, so it doesn't even necessarily have to be the 'home' button, if it's possible to map another key to launch kodi, I could work with that using my Harmony and simply replace the 'home' button altogether.

wewewi

Simply go to Settings/Apps and clear the data and cache of the Android TV Home app.

Click the home button, and choose your knew home app. Boom; done.

iLLNiSS

According to a post on the XDA forums as long as your Shield is up to date (7.2.2 and the latest Android TV Core Services and Android TV Home from the Play Store) you can install another launcher and open it. When you open it, it will ask if you want to set it as the default launcher.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/shield-tv/general/how-to-remove-leanback-launcher-oreo-t3820773

I can't confirm this, but you can always try.

If that doesn't work you'll have to remove the Leanback Launcher built into Oreo:

adb shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.leanbacklauncher
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.tvlauncher

Note: You MUST have another launcher installed already, and you can't easily reverse this method.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/shield-tv/themes-apps/alternate-launcher-root-marshmallow-t3359076