AI
People are using AI agents to strip the ads out of their smart TVs
By the newsroom · · 1 min read · ▶ 1:02
The essentials
- On 17 October 2026, Gathin posted that Claude Code found his parents' TV on wifi, removed 25 Xiaomi packages and wrote a new launcher.[1]
- His parents' Xiaomi Mi TV showed them an advert before they could even reach Netflix.[2]
- Another project, dumbtv, is built for Amazon Fire TV and disables around 65 packages, including ad ID and watch-time analytics.[2]
- The trick targets Android TV and Google TV, while Samsung, LG and Roku run different systems.[2]
What happened
According to It's FOSS, it all started with Ryan Doyle's tweet where he used Claude to clean up his smart TV.[2] Gathin then put everything in a GitHub repo called tv-vibehack, with the prompt, a custom launcher and a list of gotchas.[2] The repo was called tv-vibehack until the 19th, and old links still work.[1] The approach uses the Android Debug Bridge, the same tool found on Android phones.[2] The manufacturer's telemetry, ad services and content rows are disabled with pm disable-user, and nothing is uninstalled, so a restore script can undo every step.[1] With the repo as context, the project page says it takes about fifteen minutes.[1] Contributors have shared tested lists, one folder per model, including 40 for TCL, 22 for Sony and 22 for Xiaomi.[1]
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What the video doesn't say
The dumbtv project was tested on a Fire TV Edition television based on Android 9.[2] It replaces the home screen with its own 41 KB launcher that has no permissions at all.[2] Many of the cheap Android TVs ship with only 1 to 2 GB of RAM, so the speed gain depends on the hardware.[2] It's FOSS also advises you to turn off USB or wireless debugging when you are done, so that no open ADB port sits on your home network.[2] Some people reported that sessions refused when they asked to "hack my TV".[2]
Sources
Photos: Shixart1985 (CC BY 2.0), SelfDestructible (CC BY-SA 4.0), Dinkun Chen (CC BY-SA 4.0), Mk2010 (CC BY-SA 4.0), TGspot.co.il - (Mi Box S) (CC BY-SA 4.0), Maurizio Pesce from Milan, Italia (CC BY 2.0), ETC@USC (CC BY-SA 2.0), Justin Sijbolts (CC BY-SA 4.0), Ixfd64 (CC BY-SA 3.0), JulianVilla26 (CC BY-SA 4.0), LG Electronics (CC BY 2.0), FASTILY (CC BY-SA 4.0), TGspot.co.il - (Mi Box S) (CC BY-SA 4.0), Vogler (CC BY-SA 4.0), Maurizio Pesce from Milan, Italia (CC BY 2.0). Cropped.
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