I found the cleanest Android TV launcher, and Google didn't make it

By the time I wrap up work, there’s only one thing I really want to do: crawl into bed, grab the remote, and put on one of my comfort shows. It’s how I switch off after a long day. But if you own a Google TV, that moment of peace doesn’t always last.

More often than not, the first thing I hear when I turn on the TV is a loud ad. And even after the ad is over, the interruptions don’t really stop. The home screen is packed with recommendations and promotions, making it harder to get to the apps I actually use.

That’s when I decided enough was enough. I went looking for a cleaner, simpler Google TV home screen alternative — one that puts my content first. Thankfully, I found exactly that, and it didn’t come from Google.

The TV launcher Google should’ve made

My search for a cleaner, ad-free experience eventually led me to Projectivy Launcher, and it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It’s incredibly customizable, and, most importantly, it gets out of the way, letting me decide what deserves to be front and center.

Better yet, it didn’t take long to make the launcher feel like my own. I downloaded it from the Play Store, personalized a few settings, and within minutes, I could already tell the experience was going to be very different.

The first thing that made me smile was the welcome screen. True to its name, Projectivy leans into a projector-and-theater theme, greeting you with bright red curtains that slowly open to reveal the setup page. It’s delightfully dramatic, and honestly, I loved it. It almost feels like the curtains are opening before movie night begins.

Once I got past the welcome screen, the real fun began. Instead of rearranging my habits to fit Google’s home screen, I could finally shape the interface to reflect how my parents and I actually use our TV. I grouped our favorite streaming apps together, hid the pre-installed apps we’d never opened (good riddance), adjusted the grid to fit more apps on screen, and even tweaked the icon styles until everything looked just right. For the first time, the home screen reflected our routine instead of Google’s priorities.

The little quality-of-life improvements kept adding up, too. I created shortcuts for my HDMI inputs, so jumping to my set-top box or PS5 now takes just a single click. And one feature I didn’t know I’d appreciate so much is that I can access both Projectivy’s settings and my TV’s system settings from the same home screen. That means I no longer have to bounce between different interfaces just to tweak my smart TV’s settings.

The art of getting out of the way

But the biggest difference isn’t any of those customization options — it’s how peaceful the TV feels to use now. Every time I switch it on, I’m greeted by a minimal home screen with just the apps my family and I actually use. Netflix and YouTube sit right where we expect them to be, and there are no loud ads or endless rows of recommendations trying to grab my attention before I even decide what to watch. I simply turn on the TV, open the app I want, and get on with my evening.

That might not sound like a huge deal, but it’s completely changed my nightly routine. After a long day at work, all I want to do is sink into bed and put on one of my comfort shows. It’s become so familiar that I barely have to think about it anymore. After months of using it, I instinctively know how many times to press the remote to land on the app I want. I don’t even have to look at the screen half the time. That kind of muscle memory is really satisfying in daily use.

The change hasn’t just made a difference for me, either. My mom starts an online workout class every morning at 5 AM, and when there are people in the house who definitely aren’t morning people (me included), the last thing anyone wants is for the TV to suddenly blast an advertisement. Now she switches on the TV, jumps straight into her workout app, keeps the volume low, and starts her class without disturbing anyone else in the house. It’s something we’ve come to appreciate every single morning.

Where Projectivy Launcher stumbles

That said, Projectivy isn’t perfect. As much as I’ve enjoyed using it, I did run into a couple of frustrations. The biggest one has been the premium upgrade. I have no problem paying for apps that make my life better, and I fully intended to buy Projectivy Premium. The problem is that I simply couldn’t. Every time I tried to complete the purchase, I ran into the same payment flow issue. At first, I assumed it was something wrong with my TV, but after trying on three other Android TVs around my house, I kept hitting the exact same roadblock. Months later, I still haven’t been able to upgrade.

Thankfully, the free version already includes everything I actually use every day, so I never felt like the launcher was holding anything back. Still, it would’ve been nice to unlock the premium features and see whether custom wallpapers, extra icon packs, and the other personalization options were worth the $7 asking price.

I also rely on a Plex-based media server for my local movie library, and that’s where I hit another minor snag. Projectivy works perfectly well as the front-end, but installing Plex from the Play Store on some devices occasionally throws installation errors. It isn’t a deal-breaker — I simply sideload the APK instead — but if your TV setup revolves around Plex, it’s worth keeping in mind.

Quirks I’ll happily live with

Neither of these issues has been enough to tempt me back to Google’s default home screen. Every piece of software has its quirks, and Projectivy is no exception. The difference is that its rough edges are much easier to live with than the constant interruptions I’d gotten used to on Google TV. I still hope the premium purchase bug gets fixed, because I’d genuinely like to support the developer and spend some time exploring the extra customization options.

But even as it stands, this launcher rewired how I use my TV. Google spent years teaching me to tolerate my own home screen, Projectivy took an afternoon to make me forget it was ever a problem.