Sadly that’s not just an AndroidTV thing, regular cheap Androids have been known to include system-placed spyware even. But that doesn’t mean I don’t agree. I just first installed another launcher (which my topbox forcefully ignored of course and it ran it like an app (pressing home still went to their modded AndroidTV launcher)), so I then adb-disabled the AndroidTV-app (cause the option to do so inside Android was removed) and from that point I was as free as I could be without actually rooting it. It now boots, finds no launcher except my replacement so then boots that.
The risky part is that I am able to just uninstall this launcher, but if I ever would the device could become unusable. (Though then I could still adb-enable that AndroidTV app again, I suppose). Always best to have at least 1 launcher installed at all times, so first add, then remove… 😅
Sadly that’s not just an AndroidTV thing, regular cheap Androids have been known to include system-placed spyware even. But that doesn’t mean I don’t agree. I just first installed another launcher (which my topbox forcefully ignored of course and it ran it like an app (pressing home still went to their modded AndroidTV launcher)), so I then adb-disabled the AndroidTV-app (cause the option to do so inside Android was removed) and from that point I was as free as I could be without actually rooting it. It now boots, finds no launcher except my replacement so then boots that.
The risky part is that I am able to just uninstall this launcher, but if I ever would the device could become unusable. (Though then I could still adb-enable that AndroidTV app again, I suppose). Always best to have at least 1 launcher installed at all times, so first add, then remove… 😅