Google TV homescreen only shows apps, no recommendations or ads, in strange bug

In what seems to be a rolling bug across Google TV devices, users have found that their homescreen is going mostly blank, skipping recommendations and only showing their apps.

The Google TV homescreen is typically full of content recommendations and, in some cases, ads. Down a few rows, you’ll find your list of apps, but it’s generally a pretty crowded, though still handy experience. There is an “Apps Only” mode which disables most of the recommendations, but also disables Google Assistant and other core features.

But, in a strange bug, Google TV is showing the homescreen with only apps, and nothing else.

Multiple users on Reddit within the past week have noticed their Google TV homescreen going blank and only showing their apps. This applies to both the main “For You” tab as well as the dedicated “Apps” tab. We’ve seen reports across Chromecast with Google TV as well as a TCL TV. Our Damien Wilde also ran into a similar issue on a Chromecast just today, but it resolved following a reboot.

The cause of this issue is unclear for now, but what’s more interesting is that it seems to stick around for some users longer than others. As mentioned, Damien only ran into the issue briefly, but one user says they’ve rebooted and even reset and, still, they’re only seeing app icons.

It’s a strange issue, but likely just a bug. Seeing as this problem doesn’t break apps and only disables recommendations, though, it’s probably not going to hurt the experience too much for everyone – a lot of folks actually seem to prefer it.

More on Google TV:

• Amazon Fire TV using AI to do what Google TV’s voice search started doing years ago
• Google TV’s next big Android update may bring ‘Find my remote’ to more devices
• Walmart’s ‘Pro’ Google TV box will come with a backlit remote, but you should wait

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