It seems like yesterday, but it’s been seven years since the first Android TV entered my life. Back then, I didn’t have a Smart TV yet, so it was a huge step up from the Google Chromecast I cherish. And while it wasn’t difficult to set up, I would have appreciated a shortcut more than I discovered with experience. Today I’m going to share with you my favorites.
From small screen to medium screen to large screen: my evolution under Android started on the smartphone, jumped to the tablet and culminated on the television. On each device, I benefited from a specific version of the system, since Google adapted Android to tablets (I miss my Motorola Xoom with Honeycomb) and to television (I launched my Nvidia Shield TV in 2017). All related, but each with its particularities. And its tricks.
Android TV is an Android for big screen and button navigation
This sentence is not 100% accurate, but rather a way of summarizing the Smart TV operating system to its bare minimum. Since Android TV supports the installation of almost all Android applications, the settings menu is very similar and even Compare Google Play Store. When I first tackled my Nvidia Shield, I did so with a smartphone mentality. And, after years of experience, I could have used more advice than I can give now.
Android TV runs a version of current Android (it is updated to Android 14, although the most common on devices is Android 12), has some functions removed (it does not need any touch interface, for example) and has an interface or launcher that adapts navigation to use via remote control.
Android TV is the firmware version, Google TV is a kind of layer on top of Android TV. Both are, in themselves, identical
That there is such a parallelism between television and mobile is an advantage for the former, since developers can adapt applications quite easily. It even shares a good part of the tricks and settings; although it has exclusive options.
Below I leave you my favorite Android TV tips, settings and configurations, six things I wish I had known on day one. I hope you find them useful.
You can disable apps you don’t use
Some apps seem impossible to remove, but it is still possible to imitate what we do on our mobile: freeze software we don’t want to see in the middle. Less bloatware, space saving and lower power consumption. It never hurts.
To freeze or disable pre-installed apps on Android TV, you need to follow the following process:
- Go to your Android TV settings, top right. On the gear icon.
- Go to “Applications”.
- Scroll down to “See all apps”.
- Go to “Show system apps”.
- Enter one by one the applications you want to deactivate and click on the button dedicated to them: “Deactivate”. Accept and freeze said application.
Just like on mobile, not all apps can be frozen. And if you do, Android TV may stop working properly. Be very careful before touching any software you are not familiar with.
You can install Google Play apps from your mobile
If there’s one thing Google has improved since my first Android TV, it’s installing new apps. As strange as it may seem, It is much easier to download them from your mobile than from the TV or player itself.
With the unified experience of Google Play, just a few taps on the phone are enough to install the app on the TV. The process is as follows:
- Open the App Store on your smartphone.
- You need to make sure that your Google account is the same for both devices: Mobile Android and Android TV.
- Find the app you want for your TV with Android TV (or Google TV, which is basically the same thing). For example, SkyShowtime.
- You will see that in the “Install” bar there is a small arrow to the right. Click here.
- Choose your Android TV from the device drop-down list and the app will be installed on the TV.
- You can do the same thing from a web browser – just make sure you choose the TV and not the phone.
Yes: Android TV also supports APKs
Not all software is available on the Play Store, there are also applications that are worth installing outside the store. And since it is still an Android, the version for TVs eats APK files just like the mobile version, even applications that are not developed for the big screen format. Of course, the process is a little more complex.
Over the years, I’ve tried different methods to install APKs on Android TV. And I wish I had this one back in the early days:
- Install the Send Files to TV app on your TV (or player) with Android TV and on your mobile. It’s on Google Play.
- Install a file manager on your Android TV. The one I like the most is File Commander, although almost any other will do the trick as long as you access the package installer (most of them do).
- Download the desired APK file to your mobile.
- Open Send Files to TV on TV and also on mobile. Follow the steps to get to the main screen with “Send” and “Receive” in big letters and click “Receive” on the TV.
- Tap “Submit” on your phone and search for the APK file you downloaded. Then select your Android TV.
- The file will have been sent to your TV or player: By default, it will be stored in the “Downloads” folder (“Downloads”).
- How to send files to TV unable to install APKs (at least for now) you need to use the file manager. Open it on your Android TV.
- Go to the downloads folder, click on the received APK, accept the installation from unknown sources and install the application.
How to Speed Up Your Android TV
I know, I repeat myself: we can take advantage of the similarity with the mobile phone to transfer many tricks to Android TV. Another thing that I like the most is to eliminate the animations: this allows to obtain a noticeable acceleration effect. It’s not that the applications run faster, but the feeling will be accelerated. Always within the limits of the hardware, of course.
To remove animations from Android TV, you need to perform the following steps:
- Enter your Android TV settings and navigate to “Device Preferences”.
- Scroll down to “Information”.
- Scroll down to “Build” and tap multiple times to enable “Developer options”.
- Go back to the previous settings menu, scroll down and enter the new developer options.
- Scroll through the settings until you see the different “Animation Scale” menus. Go into each one and change “1x” to “Off”.
Don’t write with your remote, use your mobile
I confess: more than once I have typed, letter by letter, and with the remote control, my secure passwords. A modern torture that I would not wish on anyone, especially when it is a very long password with special characters. When I discovered that the mobile phone simplified the task, I never wrote on Android TV in any other way again.
You can use your phone as a remote control if you lose your real one. And it works for typing on the TV with your smartphone keyboard:
- Make sure your mobile and TV are connected to the same WiFi network.
- Use one of these three methods to open the remote compatible with your Android TV. For example, open Google TV and click “Connect TV” at the bottom right. You will need to authorize the connection on the TV.
- Click on the remote control icon.
- Go to the text field you want to write in. You will see the keyboard appear on your mobile.
The virtual remote control of the phone perfectly replaces the physical remote control of your Android TV. It is very convenient when you can’t find the real one and, above all, to comfortably write texts on the TV. Don’t do it any other way.
Bring your controller’s useless buttons to life
The last tip is one of my favorites, I end the article on a good note. Because, do you also have buttons for platforms that you don’t use on your Android TV remote? Well, you can make them open the apps of your choice when you press them.
That you have a Netflix button and you are not subscribed to the service? Follow these steps:
- Install Button Mapper on your Android TV. You can search for it in the TV store or install it using the method I described earlier.
- Enter your TV settings and navigate to “Accessibility”.
- Enable the option “Reconfiguring the buttons“.
- Open Button Mapper on your TV and accept the accessibility service for the app.
- Go back to the app menu and click “Add Buttons”.
- Click the “+” and then click the button on your remote that you want to customize. This can be anything you want, but try to apply the change to one that you don’t normally use; like the one I mentioned about Netflix.
- Once the button is created, click on it to configure it.
- Check the “Customize” switch, go to “Actions” after entering the 1-touch menu and choose the application you want to open.
Once your Android TV is set up, it will open the app you chose by pressing the button. You can add more actions to said button, like a long press, for example. You can also reconfigure the rest of the controller, regardless of the button.
Cover image | Ivan Linares
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