Best Android Tv Launcher To Redesign Mi Box And Shield Tv

Best Android TV Launcher

1. Sideload Launcher

You can easily sideload any Android app on your TV but the native Android launcher won’t let you view them. Why? Well, it does so to make sure your experience does not deteriorate on a bigger screen, and it makes sense, I mean who likes a stretched-out version of Instagram or Chrome. But, there are times, when you want to sideload Android apps on your TV. For example, I can simply install the Smart DNS proxy VPN on my Nvidia Shield using a thumb drive, and accessing it is easy once I have the Sideload Launcher installed.

To get started, open the Google Play Store on your Android TV, search for Sideload Launcher, and install it. Once the installation is complete, go back to your Android TV home screen, you’ll find the Sideload Launcher icon there. Open the app, and you will find shortcuts to every sideloaded app on your device. Download Sideload Launcher (Free)

2. Sideload Channel Launcher 2

Sideload Launcher 2, might seem like a sequel to the Sideload launcher. However, it’s from a completely different developer and a paid app at $3. Sideload Channel launcher lets you customize every bit of the home screen. Foremost, when you open the app, you will have a blank screen waiting for you to customize the wallpaper, app shortcuts, channel, widgets, etc. Apart from this, my most favorite feature of Sideload Launcher 2 is that it lets you set “Launch Sideload Channel Launcher 2 on Boot”. This way whenever you start up your Android TV, Sideload Channel Launcher 2 launches up as a delayed startup app. So, even though it’s not the default Android TV launcher, you still end up using it as one. Additionally, you can also set up website shortcuts on the home page. Hence, instead of going to the web browser and loading a web page, you can directly launch the website. For instance, I use this feature to view the PeacockTV web app free over VPN. Download Sideload Launcher 2 ($3)

3. ATV launcher

ATV launcher is yet another very powerful launcher for your Android TV. Unlike the Sideload Launcher, this one is a complete home screen replacement app and can be set as the default launcher. Once set default, you can view all your TV apps as well as sideloaded apps under one home screen with 5 apps in a row. ATV launcher is one of the few launchers that support widgets such as Calendar, Weather, Email, etc.

The best part about ATV is that it lets you access those sideloaded apps and games. ATV also supports the hidden app although to activate that you have to update to pro. ATV can be downloaded free of cost from the Play Store. Download ATV launcher (Free)

4. Simple TV Launcher

The next launcher is a minimalistic launcher that offers a fast and simple layout that looks awesome on the TV. It does not include any extra options which you would never use and focuses on the user experience and aesthetics instead. You can select a custom background or let the app choose a random background for you after every interval. It is developed specifically for Android TV and hence can be used with your remote. All the apps are on the bottom half of the home screen so that you can easily navigate and still retain most of the aesthetics of the background.

Simple Box Launcher is a must for all the people who want a launcher that is beautiful, aesthetic, and clutter-free. You can get it for your Android TV from the Play Store for $1.99. Download Simple TV Launcher ($1.99)

5. TV launcher

Next up, we have a TV launcher. This is one of those apps which requires a bit of effort, to set everything up, but once you do, it has the potential to run everything smoothly. Like other launchers in this video, the TV launcher is available on the Play Store for free. Once you install it and set it as default launcher you get “Nothing” on the home screen. You have to choose the apps that you want to see in the given lists such as “ Favourites”, Media, Games and utilize. Use the plus icon on the home screen to add apps under these categories. You can also change the grid size starting from 3 to 6. Read: Android TV vs ChromeCast vs Roku vs FireStick vs Apple TV: Which one to buy?

Another interesting thing about this launcher is that this has Dark themes support which can be enabled by going to Settings > Theme and switching the base theme to dark. The launcher is ad-supported, although while testing it, I didn’t saw any ad appear. If you are a fan of customizing your launcher yet keeping it simple then the TV launcher will suit you. Download TV launcher (Free)

6. HALauncher

HAL stands for handheld Android launcher which is quite true for its name, all the other launchers in this list allowed you to view the sideloaded apps but if you forget them after installing, there is no way to find out which app is native Android-based and which is sideloaded, HAL removes this confusion with the category Handheld present on the home screen once you install it. The handheld tab lets you see only handheld apps that were designed for mobile devices and being emulated on the TV interface.

There are other categories as well like “for Handheld and TV” which lets you view apps for both handheld and TV and “for tv” which shows only those apps which are made for TV only. There is even a Streaming tab to let the viewer choose apps for streaming only. Download HALauncher (free)