In my experience, it never took longer than five seconds. In reality, you’re creating a shortcut to a shortcut to the app.Ī small message box appears at the bottom of the screen telling you the process could take up to twenty seconds.
In most cases, you’re just going to click on Create Shortcut.Įssentially, TV App Repo creates a dummy APK file that points to the actual app. The Advanced Settings give you the option to flag the app as a game, so it end up on the Games Row and not with the rest of your apps. You can either Create the Shortcut immediately or go to the Advanced settings. Once you click on the correct app, a window pops up with two options. In this example, I’m creating a shortcut for APKMirror. From here, it’s as easy as scrolling over until you find the app you’re looking for and selecting it.
This row displays a list of all of the APKs (Android application PacKages) that are installed on your Android TV device. The left-hand side menu for TV App Repo has four options: Downloaded APKs, Leanback Shortcuts, Custom Shortcuts and More. You can find TV App Repo on Aptoide TV, APKMirror or your favorite APK repository. If that happens to you, you can still create a shortcut manually using the Android TV App Launcher Builder website that I discuss in the next section. I ran into that problem trying to create a shortcut for Skype on my Android TV.
Other users found there were certain apps that you couldn’t create shortcuts for this way. I recommend trying this method first and then using method #3 if you run into problems. Some users reported TV App Repo crashing, depending on the app that you were creating a shortcut for.Īlthough this never happened to me, I’ve only needed to use it with a handful of apps. However, once the NVIDIA Shield upgraded to Android 8 (Oreo) some issues started to pop up. From there, you can add those shortcuts to your home screen’s App row just as you would with any other app.
In only a couple of clicks, TV App Repo creates a shortcut for most Leanback apps, system apps or webpages. This app has been around for years, and although you won’t find it on the Google Play Store, it’s well worth installing it on your device. Here, I’ll be using my NVIDIA Shield TV, but it’ll work the same on any device running the official Android TV OS.īy far the easiest method to add a shortcut to your Android TV home screen is using TV App Repo. That way you can quickly decide if it’s the method you want to use. In each section, I’ll explain what the advantages and disadvantages are. Meaning that the right solution for you might not be the right choice for someone else.
Then I’ve got another way that starts on your PC and gives you some more flexibility on what the icon will look like.įinally, there’s going to be a bonus method in case you want more options.Įach method has it’s pros and cons. The first method is super-easy and is done completely through an app. I’m going to walk you through my two favorite ways to can create a shortcut on your Android TV home screen.
How to Create a Home Screen Shortcut on Android TV So I did some research and found two easy ways to create a shortcut on my Android TV whenever I sideload a new app. Sideload launchers can get around the problem, but it always felt a bit like hacking the system. But I always hated that sideloaded apps didn’t automatically create a shortcut that I could put on my home screen. Sideloading is a great way to get additional apps on your Android TV or NVIDIA Shield.