Make your old Android TV feel new again, from your phone. Turn off the bloat, free up memory, swap the cluttered home screen for a clean glowing one, and control everything with a remote on your phone.
⬇ Download the latest KonnectTV
Measured on a 1 GB Google TV (CHiQ, Android 14): Google TV's own home with apps left running, then Glowlauncher after Boost cleared background apps. Median of 3 cold starts each.
| Before | After KonnectTV | |
|---|---|---|
| Netflix opens in | 1.72 s | 0.85 s (2× faster) |
| Prime Video opens in | 3.37 s | 1.87 s (1.8× faster) |
| Home screen memory | 80 MB | 21 MB (4× lighter) |
| Free memory | 255 MB | 308 MB |
Your TV will differ. The older and more cluttered it is, the bigger the gain. Raw output, method and the script to run it yourself: docs/BENCHMARK.md.
- ✨ Glowlauncher. A calm home screen for your TV: a big clock and only the apps you pick, in one glowing dock. Choose the glow colour, or RGB to fade through all of them.
- 🧹 Detox. One tap turns off sponsored rows, screensavers and promo apps. Apps are turned off, never deleted, and every change can be undone.
- ⚡ Boost. See free RAM and storage, turn off animations so menus open instantly, stop the screensaver, set a sleep timer and clear background apps.
- 🎮 Remote. D-pad, OK, back, home, volume, mute, power and play/pause, with haptics on every tap. Type on the TV with your phone keyboard.
- 📦 App manager. Every app on the TV with its real icon and name. Open, force stop, clear data, turn off or on, uninstall your own apps, and install an APK from your phone.
- 📺 Many TVs. Finds Android TVs on your Wi-Fi by itself and remembers them. Switch between TVs from the top bar.
- 🌗 Light and dark. One tap on the top bar.
- 🔒 Private. No account, no ads, no tracking. Everything stays on your phone and your TV.
Download KonnectTV.apk from the latest release and open it on your phone. The phone must run Android 12 or newer.
- On the TV, open Settings › Device Preferences › About (or System › About).
- Press OK on Build 7 times until it says you are a developer.
- Go back to Developer options and turn on USB debugging. If you see Wireless debugging or Network debugging, turn that on too.
Put the phone and the TV on the same Wi-Fi and open KonnectTV. It finds Android TVs on the network by itself.
- TVs with Wireless debugging (Android 11 and newer): on the TV, open Wireless debugging › Pair device with pairing code. Tap the TV in KonnectTV and type the 6-digit code.
- Other TVs: tap the TV. It asks "Allow debugging?". Tick Always allow and press Allow.
- TV not listed? Tap Enter IP address manually. The IP is under the TV's network settings. The port is 5555, or the one shown under Wireless debugging.
After the first time, KonnectTV remembers the TV and reconnects in one tap.
- Apps are turned off (
pm disable-user), never deleted. Undo one change or everything from Detox › History. - KonnectTV never turns off Google Play, Play services, keyboards, Bluetooth, HDMI/TV inputs, Settings or the system UI. This applies to Detox and the app manager.
- Only apps you installed yourself can be uninstalled. System apps can only be turned off.
- Glowlauncher only turns off other launchers and home screens. It never turns off the TV maker's Live TV or input app, even when that app also answers the Home button.
- The safe-to-turn-off list is in
app/src/main/assets/debloat.json. Each entry has a plain-English reason. Pull requests for more brands are welcome.
Works on Android TV and Google TV: Sony, TCL, Hisense, Philips, Xiaomi, Chromecast with Google TV, NVIDIA Shield and others. Samsung (Tizen), LG (webOS) and Roku don't run Android, so they can't be cleaned this way.
Glowlauncher is KonnectTV's own home screen for the TV: a big clock and the apps you pick in one glowing dock, with Inputs, Settings and network at the top right. It ships inside KonnectTV (about 45 KB), so nothing is downloaded. On the TV, hold OK or press Menu on an app to move or remove it. The + tile adds one. Turn it off from Boost to get the TV's own home back.
Turning it on can freeze low-memory TVs for a minute or two. Changing the home screen is the heaviest thing a TV does. KonnectTV clears background apps first and shows each step on your phone while it works. If the TV freezes, leave it on and don't unplug it. It recovers by itself.
Use at your own risk. This is what works on the TVs we tried. It is not professional advice.
You need JDK 17+ and the Android SDK (platform 37).
./gradlew :app:testDebugUnitTest :app:assembleReleaseThe app uses Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. Glowlauncher (glowlauncher/) uses plain Android views so it stays small and runs on Android TV 5.0 and newer. ADB runs on libadb-android, which handles pairing and TLS. The frosted glass uses Haze.
To sign a release build, create keystore.properties in the project root. Never commit it.
storeFile=konnecttv.jks
storePassword=...
keyAlias=konnecttv
keyPassword=...Inspired by TV Detox. Glowlauncher is based on TV Detox's home screen.
KonnectTV is free, has no ads and always will. I build it in my spare time because I love using it. If it made your TV a little faster and you'd like to say thanks, you can buy me a coffee. It's completely optional, and every coffee is truly appreciated. ☕
A star on GitHub or sharing KonnectTV with a friend helps just as much. Thank you for using it! ❤️
MIT