Android TV 12 apps only?

by sickofgooglesshit

Anybody know how to enable Apps Only mode on Android TV? I've got a Sony TV from a few years ago and recently made the mistake of letting it update which dropped me into the new UI which is just beyond frustrating. I've since factory reset my TV back to v8.0 and side-loaded my apps, but there's a few updates I'd like to get but I don't know that they'll be compatible.

rant

And ib4 'but Google recommendations!'. I have 4 apps, that's all I need, all I want. I don't need adverts for other services and I'm never going to rent anything from Google TV/Videos. And ib4 'but G needs to get paid to update', I'm a former Google Employee, I was there when they started introducing this UI by pushing it to users without their consent and I saw the internal comms that were focused more on 'how much more $$ we can make if we create advert space for our clients'. It was never about improving the user experience it was only about how much $$ they saw Roku and Apple making and they wanted a piece. I own my TV, I bought it because it performed a certain way and I don't much appreciate the bait and switch. If it was a chromestick/device that I could plugin/remove, fine, but this is BS.

And yes, I know, username checks out.

LionDoggirl

I use ATV Launcher and disabled the system launcher with adb so it lets you choose from installed home apps like regular Android.
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tvlauncher

sickofgooglesshit

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Gonna try some of these launchers in an emulator, see how they work. I did like having the row of content for each app, but it might be the best compromise. It's absolutely infuriating the direction that Google has taken on all this. The idea that they can just push whatever they want onto your hardware without consequence, even after you've bought it is incredible. Can you imagine if you bought a car and then 10 months later the dealer let themselves in and installed an ad-display on your dashboard for a little extra kick back? ..sigh...

latinriky78

The "Apps only" mode is exclusive on the Google TV UI.

It was never about improving the user experience it was only about how much $$ they saw Roku and Apple making and they wanted a piece

Yeah, I guess the majority is aware of that, Google just want money and nothing else, the majority of companies like that only think about making money, pure stupid capitalism.