My old Android TV was slow and covered in ads I never asked for. I didn't buy a new TV. I didn't install some sketchy app. I gave Claude one prompt, and now the same TV feels brand new.
I build useful things like this with AI every week.
Subscribe on YouTubeIf you have a smart TV at home, you know how this goes. It gets slower every year, and the home screen fills up with ads you can't turn off.
So Claude did two things. It turned off the apps and background services that were slowing the TV down. Then it built me a new home screen from scratch, with no ads and no bloatware anywhere.
Here's exactly what it changed, and how to run it on your own TV. The project is called TV Detox, and it's free.
What you need
- An Android TV or Google TV. That includes many Sony, TCL, Hisense, Philips and Xiaomi TVs, Chromecast with Google TV and Nvidia Shield.
- A laptop with Claude Code or Codex on it.
- The laptop and the TV on the same Wi-Fi.
Got a Samsung, LG or Fire TV instead? Those work differently. I made a separate video for them: Claude Can Make Your Old TV Feel Brand New (Samsung, LG, Fire TV).
Step 1: Turn on developer mode
On the TV, open Settings, then Device Preferences, then About. Scroll down to Build and click it seven times. You'll see a message that says you're now a developer. That just unlocks a hidden menu.
Go back, and you'll see a new option called Developer options. Open it and turn on USB debugging. That's the switch that lets your laptop talk to your TV.
While you're in Settings, go to Network, click your Wi-Fi and write down the IP address. That's just your TV's address on your home Wi-Fi.
Step 2: Give Claude the prompt
Open Claude Code on your laptop. The terminal or the desktop app both work.
Copy the prompt from the TV Detox page on GitHub and paste it in. Swap in your TV's brand and model, and the apps you actually use. I keep the prompt on GitHub because it gets better every week, so you always get the latest version there.
When you hit enter, Claude tries to connect, and your TV asks if you want to allow it. Click Allow. Now Claude can see everything on your TV.
Step 3: Claude looks before it touches anything
The first thing Claude does is change nothing. It goes through every single app on your TV and tells you what each one does. Then it sorts them into three groups:
- Stuff that's safe to turn off
- Stuff the TV needs to work
- The apps you actually use
Honestly, my list was kind of shocking. There were so many apps I had never opened, just sitting there in the background.
Before it turns anything off, it asks you. You go through the list, and you decide what goes. It never deletes anything. It only switches apps off, and it keeps a note of every change, so you can undo all of it later.
What it changed on my TV
Once I said yes, Claude:
- Turned off all the bloatware, the apps that came with the TV that nobody asked for.
- Turned off voice search, Chromecast and the screensaver, because they ran in the background all the time and I wasn't using them.
- Fixed the TV opening Live TV every time I turned it on. Now it opens the home screen.
- Turned off animations, so screens open the second you press a key.
Then the best part: it built me a new home screen from scratch. A big clock at the top, one row with my apps, and one row with the Play Store, my HDMI inputs and Settings. That's it. No ads, no suggested shows, no rows of stuff I never asked for.
It's so light the TV barely notices it's running. And the TV still has everything it needs, like the Play Store and the keyboard, so nothing important broke.
The result
Before, my TV had around 370 MB of free memory, which is the space it uses to run things. After Claude was done, it had around 600 to 650 MB.
That's why everything feels faster. Apps open faster and nothing lags anymore.
Before you try it
- Do it at your own risk. This turns off system apps. A few TVs got stuck at the logo or kept restarting, and the AI can make mistakes. It asks before every change, and the undo script turns everything back on.
- Google TV and Chromecast: don't turn off the TV's own home screen. On some of these, that left them stuck restarting. The install script leaves it on for Google TV by default.
- OLED TVs: keep the screensaver on, so a still picture doesn't burn into the screen.
- Turn debugging off when you're done. While it's on, other devices on your network can ask to control the TV.
Want to go back? The undo steps are on GitHub. One command turns your old home screen back on.
