Shield TV Users Rant On Play Store After Google TV Home's Recent Ad Flooding

Google Android TV Home app has been receiving a bad rap on Google Play Store ever since its latest update.

The app also received several negative reviews on the Google Play Store from unsatisfied users who are upset about the banner ads that are flooding the homepages. The app now has a 100% one-star rating with around 600 negative reviews from angry customers, Android Police reported.

Most of the negative reviews came from the NVidia SHIELD owners who complained that the item they bought for a three-digit amount is now flooded with home page apps. They claimed that the problem occurred after the most recent Google Android TV Home update. The update came with a revamp to the app’s home screen that made it look similar to the Chromecast.

The Android TV Home app also automatically plays an ad with a full video trailer, 9to5 Mac spotted. The video plays with the sound on by default without any prompt from the user.

The report suggests that there is currently no way to stop the video ads. Although the video ads only play once, exiting and returning to the same window prompts the video ad to play again.

The video plays in the “For You” tab of the Google Android TV Home interface. The spot usually offers a slide show of tailored recommendations based on the user’s favorite apps or shows in progress.

In 2020, an almost similar issue caught Samsung users’ attention as ads surprisingly took over its Galaxy smartphone lineup.

Android Police said the ads were placed in places where they should not have been and in areas they could blend in. Promotional ads appeared on Samsung Pay and Samsung Health. Samsung Music has ads artistically blended in to look like one of the tracks in the library.

Furthermore, other Samsung products such as the Galaxy Store, Samsung Phone, Samsung Weather and Bixby also reportedly had ads appearing frequently. Several users reported that they also received push notifications for new products.

Roku and Amazon Fire TV both serve ads for their paying customers. However, Android Police notes that these two interfaces are popular despite ads as they come bundled with a low-power TV and are priced much lower than the NVidia SHIELD.