Smart TV owners are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to rebuild the software on their screens. Using AI coding tools, a growing number of people are redesigning their televisions' home screens, stripping out bloatware and cutting back on the advertising and data collection that have become a fixture of connected TV.
One example is Igor Aguiar, a 42-year-old developer who recently spent about 90 minutes and a handful of AI prompts overhauling his 75-inch Amazon Fire TV. The original home screen, filled with movie recommendations and advertisements, was replaced with a streamlined launcher. It includes shortcuts to his most-used apps and a breakdown of the day's significance in the Catholic liturgical calendar. “I needed something more useful to me,” Aguiar said. “That's kind of why I said, OK, let me try to make this a Catholic TV.” Aguiar is a developer by trade but not a smart TV specialist, which illustrates how accessible the process has become.
The motivations behind these projects vary. Some people are focused mainly on appearance. Griffin Cock Foster, a New York-based entrepreneur, converted his TV's streaming app icons into bound books on a faux-wooden shelf to better suit his 1920s townhouse. He said his Sony Bravia now runs more smoothly as well. Others want a more efficient interface, so they or their family members can reach built-in features and preferred services more easily. Many others have been motivated by frustration with the advertising and data tracking at the center of the connected television industry.
Two of the most prominent recent projects, CleanYour.TV and dumbtv, promise more than a new look. They say they can remove bloatware and disable content recognition tools that generate viewing data, which can be sold or used to target ads. Michael Goodman, director of entertainment research at Parks Associates, said the advertising experience “still leaves a lot to be desired.” He noted that the problem goes beyond ads interrupting favorite shows. Smart TVs can fit ads into many on-screen placements, and that marketing is a key revenue source for operating system providers. “All that marketing is how the OS [operating system] operators are making money,” Goodman said. “It's not only the OS guys; because there's ad splits, there's lots of people making money off that OS.”
Some degree of customization has long been possible. For years, people have used apps and developer tools to run alternative launchers on TVs that use Google's Android software, and many manufacturers offer at least partial control over automated content recognition, though those settings are not always easy to find. What has changed is the availability of AI coding tools such as Claude Code, which means users no longer need specialized TV knowledge to deploy these changes, only some spare time and tolerance for troubleshooting. Most redesign mods can be undone if setup goes wrong.
The projects have limits. Some models, particularly those from Samsung and LG, run on in-house operating systems that are more resistant to these techniques. The homegrown redesigns persist when a modified TV is switched off and on again, but they may not survive a software update. Even so, the emergence of a cottage industry devoted to cleaning up smart TVs suggests that many viewers have been less satisfied with their large screens than they have said openly. Americans spent more than 2.5 hours per day watching TV on average in 2025, according to figures cited in the reporting, a total of roughly 38 days over the year.
It is not yet clear how TV manufacturers will respond. Goodman said he expects their awareness of the trend to grow and said he is curious about their reaction. Those responses could come soon, since CES, the large technology trade show where TV brands compete for attention, is a little over two months away. For now, the redesigns are spreading with little interference, and people like Aguiar say the changes are working for them.