0xProbabillity/luma-tv

Luma is worth a look if you have an Android TV or Google TV box and the stock launcher's promoted rows bother you. It is a small, plain-Java replacement launcher distributed as a sideloaded APK, not a product with a store listing or an in-app update path.

The problem

On most Google TV and many Android TV sets, the home screen mixes your own apps with sponsored rows you cannot fully remove. A viewer who just wants to open Netflix or a local player first has to scan past content chosen by someone else. Luma replaces that surface with a greeting, large app cards and widgets you enable yourself, so the first screen shows only what you put there. The workflow change is the home screen itself, not an app you open occasionally.

What's different

The design borrows tvOS's calm look: a date greeting, round scene buttons, a parallax wallpaper and a row of favourite apps, with hold-OK actions to pin, move or hide entries. Above the apps, optional widgets include Up Next built from the Continue watching list that apps like YouTube and Netflix publish through Android TV. The scene buttons and 3D preview are the exception rather than the core: they only work when House Control, a separate smart-home app on the same TV, is installed.

The privacy position is explicit in the README: no analytics, no advertising ID, no accessibility service, no account, and settings stay on the device. Online access is limited to weather from Open-Meteo, poster pictures from the Continue watching list, and localhost calls to House Control. The trade-off is that this is a lean, personal project with no third-party libraries; most customisation happens through build-time settings or editing source rather than a rich settings app.

Who should try it

A good fit is someone with one Android TV stick or box, a computer on the same network, and enough comfort with ADB to install an APK and later undo a launcher change. If you want a tidy first screen without sponsored tiles and do not need smart-home scenes, Luma covers that on any Android TV. A poor fit is a household that expects Play Store installs and automatic updates, or a viewer who cannot reach the TV over the network with a computer. The core Home experience does not require House Control; only the scene buttons and 3D preview do.

Requirements and limitations

You need Android TV or Google TV on Android 8.0 or newer with USB or network debugging enabled, plus a macOS or Linux computer with ADB. Building from source additionally needs JDK 17, Android SDK build-tools 36.0.0, platform android-34 and Python 3, though no Gradle. That setup cost is the main gate: there is no on-device install path described. The build instructions and release APK cover the two documented paths.

Launching your own build also creates a signing key in .signing/ that must be kept, or Android will refuse updates signed by a different key. The release APK uses the project's own key, so switching between builds means uninstalling first. Making Luma the default home screen relies on ./luma.sh home, which can disable known stock launchers while keeping their data; read the way back before changing it. Ongoing upkeep falls on you: reconnecting over ADB and reinstalling each new version.

HotRepo's take

HotRepo's coverage begins 2026-10-24, and the only dated signal is a NEW-REPOSITORY board (新项目榜, java) placement at #16 with 104 total stars on 2026-10-25. That is a single snapshot, not a daily growth measurement, so whether interest persists cannot yet be judged. Before committing, read the ./luma.sh home section closely and confirm that the way back matches your TV model's launcher.