That we love Android TV, we have made it known on several occasions, Google’s operating system for smart TVs offers us a large number of applications that allow us to expand its functions, as well as access several services like streaming platforms. And it’s not without problems.
However, and despite the fact that it is recommended to install applications from the Google Play Store, we are missing some that are not published in the official store. We are talking about some applications open-source, so we’ll tell you how Android TV gets better with free software through these apps.
Free and open source apps for Android TV
Browsing through well-known repositories such as GitHub or GitLab, one finds a host of independent developers creating apps for Android TV. Although we can download all the apps we need from the Google Play Store, these apps open-source offer a different point of view, since in most cases they are the most unknown applications.
Therefore, we also find very curious experiences as well as other applications that are postulated as valid alternatives. We’ve taken a deep dive into these places and bring you some of the best apps open-source for AndroidTV. Of course, the fact that they are less known does not mean that some are in the official store.
Two alternative launchers for your Android TV
First of all, we have some fully functional open source alternative launchers. The most used of the two is FLauncher, an alternate launcher with a look similar to the one provided by default. The good thing is that it is ad-free and has some cool features like customizable categories, wallpaper support and lets you uninstall apps right from the home screen. . It is completely free and you can download it from Google Play Store.
The second pitcher in question is a fork of FLauncher, i.e. a part to customize it according to the developer, and it’s called aLauncher (they didn’t play with the names). Therefore, the appearance is similar to the first, and changes from it are specified in the repository. These include the ability to create a completely empty category (and use it as a spacer) or improved vertical scrolling when an empty row is at the top.
An Apple TV-style screensaver
A developer had the brilliant idea of copying the salvapantallas oh screen saver (in English) from Apple TV. He did it and compiled it into an app that is compatible with all Android TV devices.
The wonderful thing about this app is the amount of additional features included, as a way to avoid burn-in on OLED panels, the ability to play video from a local network, and the ability to skip video being viewed on screen. Plus, it’s compatible with Dolby Vision content (if your TV supports it) so you can set cute screensavers to adorn your TV when it’s not in use.
You can Download aerial view without problems from the Google Play Store, or from the official repository in the releases section or versions.
Apps to connect to video and music services and platforms
In this category, we found apps that act as clients for music and video streaming services, as well as image platforms. Now you will understand it better when we look at these three apps.
First, we highlight Photo Search, a client that brings us together flickr pictures. This offers an interface adapted to television screens and constitutes a simple means of accessing the web of images. It will show us the most searched photos, as well as the ones that are trending. If you want to search by keywords, it is possible.
Then we have SoundOnFire, a small application developed with Flutter (Google’s SDK) that allows us to access the SoundCloud web service. Thus, we can listen to thousands of songs from various artists, directly from our television. Download it from the repository that the developer has published, where he maintains this application.
As a second application to enjoy streaming content, we have Race Control TV, a somewhat simple name to see all the on-demand content from the official F1 page. It uses the official API, so you shouldn’t have any problems. The good thing is that it has cool features like changing audio language and option to select video quality. You can download it from here, where we will also see the changes that the developer incorporates.
utilities open-source for AndroidTV
We also found some useful utilities, such as a virtual mousea very comfortable browser for Android TV and a simple viewer.
Want to use your TV as if it were a computer? This is the fundamental principle behind MATVT (Mouse for Android TV Toggle). Now we will be able to browse the web in a very familiar way, because this application will allow us a slider on the screen of our Android TV. Download it, as usual, from the GitHub repository.
Now let’s talk about VitaBrowser, a lightweight browser which focuses on providing a smooth experience through its user interface. It’s a good replacement for Google Chrome, as it’s designed to be easy to use on a device with those features. The download is available on GitHub.
The viewer, as the name suggests, will be useful if we have a device with Android TV that we want to use as a screen. In other words, thanks to a JSON file, we can import images that will help us to display billboards and advertisements in establishments. In the style of what we see on the screens of premises, airports, shops and other public places. Displayer can also be downloaded from its repository.
Media players and IPTV
The last two applications are more common, but no less interesting. We have DangoPlayer TV, a iptv player where you can add your M3U and M3U8 lists to enjoy all the live content. It is free and does not contain ads, which can be downloaded from this link.
To finish with this list of apps open-source we have Jellyfin Android TV, a set of multimedia applications that allow us to share content on steaming, with the ability to cast to Chromecast or DLNA compatible devices. This client for Android TV is available in the Google Play Store, but if you prefer, you can download it from the repository.
As we can see, not only the most downloaded apps from the store provide us with functions for our TV or device with Android TV, but also there are independent developers who create very interesting applications. Here we have brought you some of them, so that you have working alternatives to more popular apps.
In Xataka Android | Android TV and Google TV: how are they similar and how are they different?
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