Vibe coding has reached TVs. Social media is awash with posts from people using LLMs and open-source tools to remove ads and tracking, trim bloat so the OS runs faster, and even completely change the look and organization of their homescreens. While a lot of it is fun â one user turned their TV homescreen into a PokÃĐmon town â I think thereâs a level of frustration behind it, too. And TV companies should take notice.
Several vibe-coded TV-debloating projects exploded in popularity over the weekend. Cleanyourtv (known as tv-vibehack until the 19th), tv-detox, and dumbtv all claim to accomplish similar things â remove sponsored ads, debloat the TV so it runs faster, and block unwanted data collection that tracks what youâre watching â without hacking, or rooting, the TV. By default, they all also replace the TVâs built-in app launcher with simpler ones. Many users are going a step further and vibe-coding their own replacement launchers, like the PokÃĐmon one below.
Most of the projects weâve seen so far focus on TVs that run on Android and Google TV operating systems (such as TCL, Hisense, Sony, and older Amazon Fire products), using existing developer modes and the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to tweak settings and apply (and remove) packages. According to the GitHub pages, they can also work with some Fire TV products that use a custom fork of Android (although likely not on the new Vega-based Fire TV Sticks). Because they use built-in developer tools, they donât require root access or firmware hacking, and theyâre reversible. Even projects that totally change the look of the interface just use Androidâs ability to install custom launchers â in many cases with an assist from Claude Code or a similar tool to create the new launcher, too.
As Verge friend Chris Person notes in his Aftermath post, none of this requires AI. These projects take advantage of capabilities that already exist in Android, and in some cases reinvent the wheel. Android…