AJ is a journalist from New York City. He's covered a variety of consumer tech topics throughout his career, with his work published on media outlets including CBS, FOX, and NBC.
Smart televisions and projectors have so many software capabilities, yet they can all come at a cost when the devices start to slow down. We’ve seen bloatware on our phones and computers, and now we’re increasingly seeing it on our smart TVs. Nobody wants to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a new TV, only to be bombarded with ads, unwanted apps, and a sluggish interface. It's becoming an increasingly frustrating part of owning a smart TV, and some people are taking matters into their own hands.
There’s been a recent trend of people using AI tools such as Claude Code to remove bloatware from their smart TVs, and their devices have begun moving as fast as ever. But before you rush to do the same, there are some precautions you can take, because one wrong move could disable essential features or, even worse, leave you with a TV that no longer works.
How are people hacking their smart TVs?
Smart TV owners are having AI software hack their TVs for them
Two of the most popular GitHub open-source projects aimed at removing bloatware are Cleanyourtv and Dumbtv, which provide code for Claude Code, not to be confused with the Claude chatbot, to essentially hack your TV. If you have a TV that runs Android TV, Google TV, or Fire TV, the AI tool can execute commands and communicate with your TV over your local network. Once you’ve enabled the Developer Settings on your device, the AI agent can access it and disable unwanted apps and software.
At first, I was tempted to try one of those codes to remove some bloatware, but then I thought, what if I do something I can’t fix? As with many open-source projects, everything isn’t going to be perfect. One person on X posted that while trying to use Claude to remove bloatware from his TV, it crashed, uninstalled the TV’s operating system, and left him in a loop on an Android recovery screen when he tried to reboot.
Other smart TV owners in Reddit communities have shared that the codes don’t work on their TVs, including some Vizio and Roku models. Some devices may have operating systems that are tougher to crack than others, rendering Claude Code useless or only getting so far. There’s also a chance that if your device receives a software update, the code it implements could create a recipe for it to crash, and the ramifications could range from minimal to permanent degradation.
Alternatives to hacking your smart TV
There are apps in the Google Play Store that have similar functions
There are multiple home screen launcher apps in the Play Store that will give you a traditional home screen feel without all the bloatware. One app I tried out was FLauncher, which offers a simple home screen with only your apps to choose from and a basic blue background, as you can see in the picture above.
Although it was refreshing not to see rotating ads and background animations, I eventually got tired of it, and if I restart the TV or press the home button on my remote, it reverts to the original home screen. With some TVs, you can set apps like FLauncher to launch at startup, so they open automatically when you turn on the TV. Still, if I press the home button, it’ll go back to the stock home screen. But it’s worth a shot if you’re absolutely tired of your device’s main home screen.
Another option is to disconnect your smart TV from Wi-Fi, which stops live advertisements and can speed up loading times because fewer apps are using Wi-Fi in the background. Many people only use their device for gaming or as an external screen for another device, so this route could make sense if you fall into this category.
Try freeing up storage space if possible
Unused apps accumulate unnecessary cache and storage space.
There’s also deleting your Google Account from your device, and factory resetting the device, and then when it restarts, you simply skip logging in to your Google account. But be aware that any saved data on your smart TV could be permanently lost if you perform a factory reset, and you may not be able to use certain apps’ full capabilities without logging in to your Google account.
You can also try deleting apps you don’t use that are hiding in the full app library, or that you didn’t know you could delete. And even if you can’t delete an unwanted app, you should be able to delete its storage and/or cache to free up some space. Regardless of which attempt you take to reduce your smart TV’s bloatware, just remember to take precautions. But this issue has become a growing problem, and we may soon have to return to the old days of basic flat-screen TVs and projectors without an operating system.