KonnectTV, a clean home screen for old Android TVs

A phone-run Android app that turns off bloat, frees memory and replaces a cluttered Android TV home screen with a glowing, minimal launcher. Works without root over wireless ADB.

Build sheet

Device page: Fire TV Edition television →
Device: Android TV / Google TV
Connection: Wireless ADB over Wi-Fi
Language: Kotlin, Jetpack Compose
Install: Phone APK, no root

Can I build this?Beginner · AI 5/5 · $0

Difficulty: Beginner
AI-buildability: 5/5
Time: A weekend
Cost: $0

Tools

Android phoneAndroid StudioJDK 17

Starter prompt

Based on "KonnectTV, a clean home screen for old Android TVs" on Afterware: https://afterware.xyz/p/konnecttv-a-clean-home-screen-for-old-android-tvs

Build a minimal Android TV launcher in Kotlin with Jetpack Compose or plain views. It should show a large clock and a row of up to six user-picked apps, with a glowing focus border that cycles colours. Add a companion phone app that connects to the TV over wireless ADB, pairs with a 6-digit code, and lists installed apps with their icons. Keep the code to software changes only and never disable system apps.

Estimates based on the original write-up. How AI-buildability is scored. Building with an AI assistant? Connect it to Afterware (free MCP server).

Story

KonnectTV is an Android app that controls an Android TV from a phone. Over the same Wi-Fi, it connects through wireless ADB, which it pairs with a code shown on the TV. From there it can turn off sponsored rows and promo apps, show free RAM and storage, clear background apps, and open a remote control with d-pad, volume and a phone keyboard for typing on the TV. Apps are disabled with pm disable-user rather than deleted, and every change can be undone.

The most visible part is Glowlauncher, a replacement home screen with a large clock and a single dock of chosen apps. The dock glow fades through colours as focus moves. It is built on plain Android views and ships inside the app, based on the home screen from TV Detox. The author reports a 1 GB Google TV going from 80 MB to 21 MB for its home screen, with some apps opening about twice as fast. The source also warns that switching home screens can freeze low-memory TVs for a minute or two.

The project is written in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose and uses libadb-android for pairing and TLS, and Haze for the frosted glass effect. The source does not say whether AI tools wrote the code.

Resources · 4

Repository Latest release (APK)TV Detox (original home screen)libadb-android