Android TV has evolved over the past several years, most recently with a revamp to its homescreen to be a bit closer to what’s found on Google TV. That new interface arrived on the popular and not-cheap Nvidia Shield TV recently, and so far, there’s been a lot of backlash from the community regarding the arrival of ads on the Android TV homescreen. Where do you stand on it?
Nvidia just completed the rollout of the Android TV “Discover” homescreen this past Thursday for Shield TV owners. The new update adds a “Discover” tab to the homescreen for content discovery based on your interests. There’s also a “Cinematic Highlights” row on the top of the homescreen that rotates through a few featured TV shows and movies either picked by Google or sponsored by content providers.
Predictably, Shield TV owners have been furious with the arrival of ads on their homescreen. We first noticed this on our own coverage of the change, where comments from readers were mostly negative, with a few actually looking forward to the update. Now that it’s actually widely available, though, the update has brought out a fair bit of rage. Several threads on Reddit have made it clear that a lot of Shield TV owners are far from happy with ads. Review bombing on the Android TV Home listing on the Google Play Store has also increased significantly. We first reported on the app dropping down to one star nearly two months ago, but things have only gotten worse in the time since.
Quite a few Redditors have also taken the time to replace the Android TV launcher entirely on their Shield TV devices in response to this latest update, sometimes with really neat results.
Despite the online reaction, though, I get the sense that average customers may feel differently. Last week I was with some friends who happen to be Shield owners, so was able to see their reaction to the new homescreen in real life. One mentioned it’s something that “might get annoying eventually,” and the other basically shrugged it off, instead being more interested in the fact that Apple TV+ was now supported.
Where do you stand? Do the new ads and recommendations on the Android TV homescreen for Shield TV annoy you? Let us know in the poll below!
More on Android TV:
- Shield TV is getting Google’s ‘Discover’ Android TV homescreen starting June 17th
- Apple TV expands availability on Android TV to Nvidia Shield ahead of Ted Lasso’s return
- Hands on: Google’s reference designs set a delightful standard for Android TV remotes
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