Hi all,
My Hisense TV forced a system update that made it impossible to uninstall the Android TV home update that enables "recommendations". I've found several posts about blocking androidtvwatsonfe-pa.googleapis.com at the router level, and was wondering if this would also prevent future system updates from being forced on the TV.
Those recommendations are usually referred to as the new "Discover" UI.
The thing is: it is living within the exact same "Android TV Home" launcher and "Android TV Core Services" app packages that are installed on every Android TV device on the market, regardless of whether the Discover UI has been enabled on them or not. The same app versions are running across every device. Chances are the payload was introduced at long time ago; maybe months ago.
What's more, the new UI is enabled by Google via a simple server-side switch. There is no update to be blocked. The fun thing is: at the moment, this server-side switch can be tricked by using a VPN and turning location services off. Switch to a country where the UI has not been enabled yet, (mostly Asia) and the UI will revert to the old one.
Are you sure a system-level update even took place? My own Hisense TV switched to the new UI overnight, at that was it. No going back, no system update, no app update; the Play Store auto-update was turned off.