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u/Expensive_Milk_958

r/droidappshowcase r/AndroidTV r/AppStoreOptimization r/AndroidTVApps r/GoogleTV r/SideProject
▲ 2 r/AndroidTV

market://launch?id=<pkg> stopped working on Android TV — Play Store 52.x refuses it, 38.x works

Heads up for anyone whose app launches other apps on a Google TV / Android TV device.

Symptom: ACTION_VIEW with market://launch?id=<package> no longer launches the app. The Play Store handles the intent, then does nothing. Logcat:

E/Finsky: [2] Instant apps market deeplink launches are disabled.

The intent still resolves — it goes to com.android.vending/com.google.android.finsky.instantlaunchapi.InstantLauncherActivity — it just refuses to launch.

It's the Play Store version, not the device. Uninstalling Play Store updates on the TV rolled it back and fixed it immediately:

Play Store market://launch
52.6.20-24 refused
38.7.29-23 (factory) works

The rollback doesn't last. Play re-updated itself within about two hours and it broke again. am force-stop com.android.vending doesn't help at any point. A full reboot gives roughly a 5-minute window where it works before the flag syncs back — which made it look like a wedged process at first.

Reproduces without any app involved:

adb shell "am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d 'market://launch?id=com.google.android.youtube.tv'"
adb shell dumpsys activity activities | grep -m1 mResumedActivity

What still works:

  • Per-app schemes — vnd.youtube://, netflix://Netflix, hotstar://www.hotstar.com, zee5://www.zee5.com. Read them off the device with dumpsys package <pkg> | grep -i -e scheme -e authority. The authority matters as much as the scheme: nflx:// and nflx://Netflix both fail to resolve where netflix://Netflix works.
  • Store listings — https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=<pkg> opens the Play listing fine, and shows Open when the app is installed. Unaffected by whatever this flag is.

What doesn't:

  • android-app://<pkg> — won't resolve
  • intent://#Intent;package=…;end — won't resolve

Note the error says "Instant apps", and market://launch is handled by InstantLauncherActivity — part of the Google Play Instant machinery Google has been retiring. That may be the mechanism.

One device, so take it as a data point rather than a finding: Hisense Google TV, Android 11. If you have a TV on Play Store 52.x, can you check whether market://launch still works for you? Trying to work out whether this is a broad rollout or something narrower.

reddit.com
u/Expensive_Milk_958 — 21 hours ago
▲ 3 r/GoogleTV

market://launch?id=<pkg> stopped working on Android TV — Play Store 52.6.20-24 refuses it, 38.x works

Heads up for anyone whose app launches other apps on a Google TV / Android TV device.

Symptom: ACTION_VIEW with market://launch?id=<package> no longer launches the app. The Play Store handles the intent, then does nothing. Logcat:

E/Finsky: [2] Instant apps market deeplink launches are disabled.

The intent still resolves — it goes to com.android.vending/com.google.android.finsky.instantlaunchapi.InstantLauncherActivity — it just refuses to launch.

It's the Play Store version, not the device. Uninstalling Play Store updates on the TV rolled it back and fixed it immediately:

Play Store market://launch
52.6.20-24 refused
38.7.29-23 (factory) works

The rollback doesn't last. Play re-updated itself within about two hours and it broke again. am force-stop com.android.vending doesn't help at any point. A full reboot gives roughly a 5-minute window where it works before the flag syncs back — which made it look like a wedged process at first.

Reproduces without any app involved:

adb shell "am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d 'market://launch?id=com.google.android.youtube.tv'"
adb shell dumpsys activity activities | grep -m1 mResumedActivity

What still works:

  • Per-app schemes — vnd.youtube://, netflix://Netflix, hotstar://www.hotstar.com, zee5://www.zee5.com. Read them off the device with dumpsys package <pkg> | grep -i -e scheme -e authority. The authority matters as much as the scheme: nflx:// and nflx://Netflix both fail to resolve where netflix://Netflix works.
  • Store listings — https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=<pkg> opens the Play listing fine, and shows Open when the app is installed. Unaffected by whatever this flag is.

What doesn't:

  • android-app://<pkg> — won't resolve
  • intent://#Intent;package=…;end — won't resolve

Note the error says "Instant apps", and market://launch is handled by InstantLauncherActivity — part of the Google Play Instant machinery Google has been retiring. That may be the mechanism.

One device, so take it as a data point rather than a finding: Hisense Google TV, Android 11. If you have a TV on Play Store 52.x, can you check whether market://launch still works for you? Trying to work out whether this is a broad rollout or something narrower.

reddit.com
u/Expensive_Milk_958 — 22 hours ago
▲ 1 r/SideProject

I reverse-engineered Google's Android TV remote protocol so my phone could replace the remote I keep losing

My Google TV remote lives somewhere in the couch. The official Google TV app on my phone works, but it's slow to connect and it drops the session constantly — so I spent a while figuring out how it actually talks to the TV, and built my own.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ax.androidtv

It speaks the real Android TV Remote v2 protocol — TLS on port 6467 for PIN pairing (the shared secret is derived from both ends' certificates, so there's no password to store), then a control session on 6466 with a keepalive ping. There's no public spec for it, so a lot of this was decompiling, staring at protobuf wire bytes, and guessing field numbers. Some findings that cost me real time:

  • Voice isn't a stream you'd expect — RemoteVoiceBegin carries {samples, sampleSize, channels} and the audio goes in a bare bytes field, with no session id anywhere. Getting that field number wrong just makes the TV silently ignore you.
  • The TV broadcasts its own state back: field 50 carries volume/mute/max, field 40 carries live on/standby. That means the power button can reflect what the TV is actually doing instead of guessing and getting out of sync, which every remote app I tried gets wrong.
  • When "it won't connect" happens with a perfectly healthy network, it's usually the TV's accept queue wedged by a zombie session from a previous app — not your Wi-Fi. Force-stopping the TV-side app fixes it.
  • There's also a Bluetooth HID path: the phone registers as a standard keyboard + consumer-control device, so it works with no network at all. Power works over it; app-launch links don't, and that asymmetry isn't documented anywhere I could find.

What it does day to day: auto-discovery over mDNS, D-pad + touchpad, a keyboard that types into whatever field the TV has focused, volume/media keys, voice search, and an apps tab you can pin and rename tiles on.

It's on Play, free, with ads and an optional premium unlock. Not trying to sell anyone here — I'd mostly like to know whether the pairing flow makes sense to someone who hasn't been staring at it for months, and whether it connects on TVs I don't own (I've only tested against a handful of Google TV models).

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ax.androidtv

Happy to go deeper on the protocol side if anyone's poking at the same thing — the wire format details are the part I wish someone had written up before I started.

u/Expensive_Milk_958 — 6 days ago
▲ 8 r/AndroidTVApps

App Name: AX: TV Remote / Tv Browser/ for Android TV [Free] (Android TV / Google TV)

App Name: AX: TV Remote / Tv Browser/ for Android TV [Free] (Android TV / Google TV)

What it does: A full web browser built for the television instead of ported to it, so you can reach every site that never got a TV app. Instead of fighting a D-pad, your phone becomes a touchpad that drives the cursor on the TV.

Link:

To redeem: AX: TV Remote → Settings → Premium → Enter your code → Redeem. It unlocks instantly and covers both apps. One thing to know: the code locks to the device you redeem it on, permanently, so use the phone you plan to keep.

Requirement: AX: TV Remote on your phone. You want it anyway — it's where the touchpad is smoothest (Apps section, no QR needed), and it's where the feedback thread and code redemption live. It's free, and the Premium you get covers both apps.

  1. Install AX: TV Browser on your TV and use it for a bit.
  2. Install AX: TV Remote on your phone (free, required) and open Settings → Feedback.
  3. Send me what you thought — good or bad — and mention Reddit.
  4. I reply in that same thread with your code; replies arrive as an in-app notification, so there's nothing to watch for

Bug reports: post them at r/AXApps — https://www.reddit.com/r/AXApps/ — that's where I track issues, betas, and release notes for both apps. It's day one, so if something's broken I'd rather hear it there than read it in a one-star review.AX: Tv Browser for Android TV [FREE]

u/Expensive_Milk_958 — 7 days ago
▲ 19 r/droidappshowcase

AX: Remote for Android TV | Giveaway 100 only.

Hi everyone! 👋

I recently released AX: Remote for Android TV, a remote-control app for Android TV & Google TV, and I'd love to get more people testing it.

🎁 I'm giving away 100 Lifetime Premium upgrades!

How to participate

  1. ⬆️ Upvote this post so more Android TV users can discover it.
  2. Install the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ax.androidtv
  3. Connect it to your TV and use it for a few minutes.
  4. Open Feedback in the app and send your honest feedback (Bug, Idea, or Other).

Tell me:

  • What you liked
  • Any bugs you found
  • Features you'd like to see

📩 Important

Lifetime Premium codes will NOT be shared in Reddit comments or Reddit DMs.

After reviewing your feedback, I'll reply directly inside the app. Open the Feedback → Premium Access page to check for my response and your Lifetime Premium upgrade code.

(See screenshots below for where the developer reply appears.)

📺 Demo Video:
https://youtube.com/shorts/FuwnAm6ehH0

Features

  • 📺 Wi-Fi & Bluetooth connection
  • 🎮 D-pad + Touchpad
  • ⌨️ Keyboard input
  • 🎤 Voice Search
  • 🔢 Number Pad
  • ▶️ Media controls
  • ⏰ TV Alarm & Sleep Timer
  • 📡 IPTV Player
  • 📲 Cast photos, videos & music to your TV
  • 🚫 One-time Premium upgrade (No subscription)

I'm actively improving the app, so every suggestion helps. Bug reports and feature requests are especially appreciated.

If you enjoy the app, a Google Play review would mean a lot.

Thanks for your support! 😊

u/Expensive_Milk_958 — 20 days ago