Android TV Launcher

I paid a premium for two Shield TVs. I had been super happy with them for years, including the Android TV interface. This week, Google deployed a change to the home screen that introduced these huge obnoxious ads that cannot be disabled. The ads are for content in services that aren't even installed or subscribed. They're totally irrelevant, dominating the screen and incredibly annoying. The entire experience has gone from great to awful in an instant. This is a blatant bait-and-switch, and whatever trust I had in Google is gone. "Don't be evil"? What a sham.

All ads and no way to disable them. Customizing still keeps ads in prominent places and constantly asks you to customize and add more if you opt for none. The flow of the UI is tremendously degraded by making unfavorited apps take several button presses to access instead of an easy way to open previously installed apps from the home screen. All of these changes are blatantly seeking to monetize a product with no regard for usability or the users. Atrocious would be too generous.

In the last 5 years, I've spent 400 dollars on two Shield TV Pros for the clean and uncluttered experience of a device that is not subsidized with countless ads. If I wanted that, I've would have saved myself the trouble and bought a cheaper device like a Roku. Up until the last update, I've been largely happy with that investment but not anymore. An ad-free experience was implicit when buying a premium device like this. And developers need to understand this. My review is 1 star until the ads are removed or a option to permanently remove them from premium devices is implemented.