A replacement home screen for Amazon Fire TV with no ads, sponsored rows, or autoplaying trailers: your apps and nothing else.
Tested on a TCL Fire TV (AFTDEC012E) running Fire OS 8.1.8.5 (Android 11). Any Fire OS 6, 7 or 8 device should work.
On a Mac, open Terminal and run:
git clone https://github.com/smithbr/firetv-adless.git
firetv-adless/tools/setup.shIf macOS offers to install the command line developer tools, accept, then run the first line again.
setup.sh installs Homebrew if it is missing, then
adb from the Brewfile, asking first, and offers to put
Homebrew and the firetv command on PATH in your shell profile. While
this repo is private, it also installs GitHub's gh and signs you in, which
downloading the launcher needs. On Linux it lists what to install instead.
It ends by offering to set up the TV, which runs firetv setup:
- It shows what to turn on with the remote: Developer options, ADB debugging and Apps from Unknown Sources.
- It asks for the TV's IP and remembers it, then waits while you accept the debugging prompt on the TV.
- It downloads the launcher from the latest release, installs it and makes it Home, then tunes the TV and runs Doctor, in that order. Installing asks before replacing a launcher that is already there, and the other steps ask before changing anything.
Run firetv setup again any time, or firetv for the menu. To use a
different TV for one command, set FIRETV_HOST to its IP. The IP is
saved in ~/.config/firetv/host; if the TV's IP changes, run
firetv setup and answer No to "Use the TV at …?".
When a newer release is out, firetv says so as it opens and offers to
install it; firetv install (or install in the menu) does the same. A
launcher installed from v0.2 or earlier, or built on another computer, is
signed with a different key, so updating replaces it; that clears its
favorites and hidden apps, and firetv says so before it starts. The theme
is put back, or asked for when the old launcher is too old to report it.
Part of install: once the launcher is on the TV, install makes it Home, in
the walkthrough or with firetv install. It asks before changing anything.
Until it's Home, open the launcher from Your Apps on Amazon's home screen.
Before Fire OS 8.1.6.9 it disables Amazon's launcher and sets this one as Home. Settings sections still open from the Settings row, but the full Settings menu is gone.
Fire OS 8.1.6.9 and later block replacing Amazon's launcher without
root, so the step changes nothing and offers
Home on Fire (GPL-3.0): an
accessibility service that opens this launcher at boot and whenever Amazon's home
appears. Accept it, then on the TV select Choose target app… and pick
Launcher.
Home then reaches this launcher after about 2.5 s (4 to 5 s after a reboot), with Amazon's home showing meanwhile. Long-press and double-press Home still go to Amazon's home unless you turn them off in Home on Fire.
Part of tune, in the walkthrough or with firetv tune: one checklist of
the ad, recommendation and telemetry packages in
tools/packages-disabled.txt and the settings tweaks in tools/tweaks.txt.
The ticks show the TV as it is: a ticked package is disabled, a ticked tweak
is on. Enabled packages are listed first. Tick a package to disable it, untick
it to turn it back on; ctrl+a ticks them all. Some Fire OS versions protect a
package from being disabled; tune says so, leaves it on, and stops offering it.
The packages the TV needs, listed in tools/packages-core.txt (Amazon's
launcher, Settings, the Appstore, OTA updates, sign-in, the screensaver, the
TV tuner and a few they depend on), are never disabled.
Every menu entry is also a command, with the same name: firetv doctor
runs what doctor in the menu runs. firetv --help lists them all, with
firetv setup, the walkthrough, which is a command only.
firetv doctor # check the connection, the launcher's version and key, core packages, debloat and storage; changes nothing
firetv install # install or update the launcher, remove old builds, make it Home
firetv tune # checklist in a terminal, tweak list elsewhere
firetv tune fast-animations on # turning one off restores the old values
firetv theme # pick a theme in a terminal, list them elsewhere
firetv theme terminal # switch to one by name or label
firetv clean # trim app caches, then remove old launcher builds, asking first
firetv rebootOld launcher builds are earlier names and debug or devicetest builds,
listed in tools/packages-old-launchers.txt. Each shows as a blank tile in
Apps; doctor warns about them, and install and clean offer to remove them.
firetv apps gets apps from Amazon's Appstore, sideloads an APK, or
uninstalls apps. From the command line:
firetv apps list # what's installed, and from where
firetv apps add netflix # a name from tools/appstore.txt
firetv apps add tv.pluto.android # or a package, ASIN or amazon.com link
firetv apps remove netflix
firetv apps remove # a checklist of what's installedadd opens the app's Appstore page on the TV and presses OK only for a free
Get or Download. For a price or a subscription it leaves the page open
for you to decide on the TV.
Pick one from the Theme tile in Settings, or from the computer with
firetv theme (theme in the menu). Each is described in
docs/themes.md.
 Dapple TV |
 Terminal |
 Mintendo Snitch |
 Mintendo Snitch, Light |
 Game Queen |
 Game Queen, Light |
 Editorial |
 Editorial, Light |
 Ambient clock |
In the default Dapple TV theme, three tabs run across the top: Home (your favorites), Apps (everything installed, sideloaded apps included) and Settings (Fire TV's settings sections, the Appstore, Restart and Hidden apps).
-
Hold OK on any app to favorite, hide or uninstall it. Built-in Amazon apps can only be hidden; Settings > Hidden apps brings them back.
-
Restart in Settings restarts the TV at once. It goes through the TV's own adb, so ADB debugging must stay on. The first time, the TV asks to allow the launcher; tick Always allow and it never asks again.
-
Backdrop in Settings picks Still (your photo, or a dark gradient) or App banners (the focused favorite's banner, blurred; heavier on the GPU).
To use your own photo, push it and restart the app, with FIRETV_HOST
set to the TV's IP and port (export FIRETV_HOST=192.168.1.20:5555):
adb -s "$FIRETV_HOST" push backdrop.jpg /sdcard/Android/data/la.bsmith.launcher/files/backdrop.jpg
adb -s "$FIRETV_HOST" shell am force-stop la.bsmith.launcher && adb -s "$FIRETV_HOST" shell am start -n la.bsmith.launcher/.MainActivitytools/setup.sh --build adds Temurin and the
Android SDK, accepts the SDK licenses and points the build at the SDK. On
Linux, install Temurin 17 to 27 and Android's command-line tools and set
ANDROID_HOME to the SDK first. Install then offers Build it here,
which runs tools/install.sh --launch. In
Android Studio, set the build
variant to release and press Run.
Signing: releases are signed with a key kept outside the repo, so each
one updates the last in place. tools/release-key.sh creates it in
~/.android and points Gradle at it; back up the keystore and its
password, since a lost key means users must reinstall. Its certificate's
SHA-256 is pinned in app/release-key.sha256: the script refuses to make
or upload a key that does not match unless given --rotate. Without the
key, release builds use the debug key and cannot update an installed
release.
Releasing: bump versionName and versionCode in
app/build.gradle.kts and push to main. The Release workflow builds the
signed APK and publishes it as launcher.apk in a release named after the
version, listing the commits since the last one. It signs with the key in
the repo's Actions secrets, which tools/release-key.sh --github stores,
and refuses to publish an APK whose certificate does not match the pin.
The job that signs can only read the repo; a second job, which never sees
the key, publishes. firetv checks a downloaded launcher.apk against the
same pin before installing it, with tools/apk-signers.py (Python 3, which
comes with the command line developer tools).
Run in this order:
adb uninstall io.github.toolicious.homeonfire # if Home on Fire was installed
tools/restore-home.sh # if make-home.sh was run: Amazon's launcher back as Home
tools/uninstall.sh # remove this launcher from the TV
tools/restore-debloat.sh # re-enable every disabled packagefiretv reset runs the same steps, asking before each.
A factory reset (Settings > My Fire TV > Reset) also undoes all of it.