Guide · Updated September 2026

How do I get the ads off my Google TV home screen?

You cannot — not on the stock home screen. The banners, the sponsored rows and the autoplaying trailers are part of the launcher itself, and Settings offers no switch that removes them. What you can do is stop using that launcher for HOME: set a different one as the real home app, from outside the TV, over its own debugging connection. The ads disappear with the screen that carried them, the stock launcher stays installed, and one tap brings it back. The free TV Launcher Manager does it in about ten minutes.

Where the ads actually live

The Google TV and Android TV home screens are apps — com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx on Google TV, com.google.android.tvlauncher on Android TV — and the promotional rows are their content, not a separate setting. “Apps only mode” and the data-saving toggles reduce some rows on some TVs; none of them empties the screen. That is why every guide that promises an on/off switch ends in disappointment.

The fix: a different app answers HOME

1. Install a launcher you likeProjectivy, Monet, AT4K, Premium TV Launcher or any other — each has its own guide here, and the tool links to their Google Play pages.
2. Set it as the real home appTV Launcher Manager does it over the box's debugging connection, verifies the box accepted it, and records the undo. No service has to keep running on the TV.
3. Press HOMEYour launcher opens — no banners, no sponsored rows. After reboots and updates too, Android TV 14 included.

What honestly does NOT go away

• Ads inside streaming apps: a free, ad-supported app keeps its own ads — they were never the home screen's.
• The screensaver and its promotions are separate from the launcher; most TVs let you set a plain screensaver in Settings.
• Nothing here blocks ads at the network level, and we do not recommend tricks that break app updates or terms.

Questions

Will a system update bring the ads back?

No. The home-app setting survives updates and reboots — that is the point of setting it over ADB instead of a service. If the TV ever asks again, your launcher is one pick away.

Is this allowed? It is my TV.

Yes. You switch on the TV's own debugging option yourself, and the change is a standard Android setting, written the way developers write it. Nothing is rooted, patched or bypassed.

Which launcher has no ads of its own?

We do not rank launchers. The guides linked below say plainly how each one behaves, and the tool works with all of them — including going back.

Related

• Fix the HOME button — every launcher, every case
• Restore the original home screen