Google TV

Google TV’s ‘Apps only’ mode now has ads and recommendations for many more users

Ben Schoon | Oct 29 2024 - 6:15 am PT

Google TV has had a handy “Apps only” mode for quite some time that cuts down on clutter, but the feature is now showing ads and recommendations for a lot more users.

“Apps only” mode has been around since the first Google TV release back in 2020. Google TV is stripped of much of its functionality, such as Assistant, but users see fewer ads and recommendations, and get to focus the experience almost entirely on their apps. At least, that’s how it’s been in the US.

This special mode has always shown banners for recommended content and sponsored ads in the States, but other regions didn’t see this. Rather, apps took over the entire display. This was the case in Europe, as one example, but that’s changing.

As users on Reddit have found and as FlatPanelsHD has also noted, Google TV is rolling out ads and recommendations to “Apps only” mode throughout Europe. There are reports coming in from Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and more. This doesn’t appear to be limited solely to Europe, either, as one user from New Zealand reports the same change on their TV.

For these users, this is a jarring change, as the previous look (pictured below) showed quite literally nothing but apps.

The new experience, though, is still considerably cleaner compared to the core Google TV experience, which has been showing more and more ads over the past couple of years, including ads for physical products and locations rather than only content, as was the case for the first few years of the platform. There are also fewer slots in the recommendations slider, from what we can tell, with only two or three recommendations rather than the 5-6 that are usually shown.

Notably, the version of “Apps only” now rolling out in Europe and other regions is the same one that Google debuted in mid-2023. That redesign offered much better functionality by adding an “app drawer,” which showed apps in a fullscreen grid rather than a horizontal list as was the case for a long time prior.