google tv is the worst tv operating system i've experienced

by zzcool

i actually liked android before the update, it was clean as android should be but now theres a ton of bloatware, more ads than any google product i've ever seen seriously nothing is as bad as this, imagine if you bought an android phone and couldn't remove the google logo on the homescreen or google widgets below, i can't get to my shows because i have to flip between 3 useless rows that i can't hide i don't even have amazon prime why should i have to flip through it any in progress show is like 3 rowes down rather than at the top, theres a huge google logo everywhere you go, and then theres multitasking, even an android phone from 2009 could multitask, it's laggy it's not pretty at all any more, you can't switch input while watching netflix and then come back you'll have to press play again because nothing is saved, i loved android over webos over samsung, but now i think it's the worst most unappealing tv os, and it ruins my tv entirely, in this case i think samsung os is miles ahead in both ui design and bloat, sony did some changes that made it better but it's still just terrible, i have a sony tv from this year and it feels as laggy as my sony tv from 2014

latinriky78

Google TV is NOT an operating system but a launcher in the form of an updatable APK running on top of the Android operating system.

If you refer to the new UI on Android TV, that is NOT Google TV but the same "Android TV Home" APK file that was introduced on Android 8 that mimics now what the Google TV launcher does and it has been deployed by Google with a server switch to a very few countries for the moment, someday it will hit every single device worldwide.

Here's to wonder when it will arrive to everyone ever since they announced it a few months ago.

VegasTechGuy

Install Sideload Launcher 3 . Very customizable and ad free đź’Ş

illathon

Yes it's so awful.

I hate google. So spammy all the time.

Reach_Round

Yeah, gave up, used ABD (took less then 5 mins) and installed Flauncher on my Nvidia Shield Pro, works well.

Pessimist1

You can use apps only mode.

[deleted]

Just like Android, the OEM is free to configure and compile their 'own version' of Android, and provide their own content, software, etc.

And yes, they can configure it to shove ads up your buttocks.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ad+blocking+on+whole+network

One solution is to block ads at the router. Most of them override the DNS with a DNS that shunts all ad servers to 'nowhere'.

Another is to not use the 'Smart TV' features at all. There are plenty of cheap little gizmos to provide 'Smart TV'.

Or just use a computer + browser. The best thing about this solution is that you can block the ads, AND access paid content (don your pirate hat) for free.

[deleted]

I hate it too. I paid earned money for a google tv puck and i am seeing ads and “laverne cox’s watchlist” take up half my screen. I don’t know or care who that b is. Whats a good alternative i can trust?

pawdog

Thing is it's aimed at people that want all the suggestions. You call them ads and that's fair. It's too bad they took the nonconfiguration route but there is also an audience for people that would never do any configuring. I don't know why yours is so laggy though, Oher than when you have to wait for the homescreen to load I don't get any laggyness. But it's also not my everyday device. You would probably like the ONN device. It's so quick and while it has the ad banner it's still Andoid TV on the outside as well as on the inside.

Mhkw

Progressive insurance, coca cola... Those are ads. Recommending movies or shows I don't see as ads. But your right, I prefer android tv over google tv also but for other reasons.. like far less apps on Google tv than Android unless you search for "playstore" in google tv.