Android TV remote no longer launching apps

Configuration
1

Hi, can someone help please. I have been using the android tv integration for a while. Suddenly I am unable to launch apps using the play_media action. I have a google streamer and recently, the deep links from the streamer have started working again (the continue watching section on the tv stopped for ages). I am not sure if the Home Assistant is supposed to populate a list of apps but the adb integration is still working. I would use that but the chromecast tv 4k stopped working with this integration after a google firmware update ages ago. Thanks for any help.

PS: I have also tried rolling back to a previous backup I created a few months back and it still doesn’t work.

2

Same here. I could launch apps using Android TV integration just until a couple days ago where it stopped working

3

Thank God I’m not the only one, thought I had broken something. But when going back to a previous backup, it still didn’t work. I think something has been changed Google end. Like I said, when I now click the links for continue watching, they are working again. The deep links using URL in home assistant are working again and they broke ages ago.

4

I noticed the same issue only today. I have some automations that launch apps using Android TV remote integration and the apps no longer launch. I thought a simple restart of my ATV device (Google Streamer) would sort it, I also tried reloading the HA integration, but no joy

5

I have been setting up an android TV integration over the last couple of days. I had the link to Netflix working but then it stopped. I thought it was me but now I have seen this I am not so sure. With Claude’s help I have got the netflix link working, I am now looking for links to prime and ideally BBC IPlayer. So if anyone has any suggestions…
Thanks

6

Same here. Using the logger for androidtvremote2 showed that the commands are sent successfully, but nothing seems to happen

logger:
default: warning
logs:
homeassistant.components.androidtv_remote: debug
androidtvremote2: debug

2026-08-20 23:03:08.595 DEBUG (MainThread) [androidtvremote2] Sending: remote_app_link_launch_request { app_link: "market://launch?id=org.xbmc.kodi" }

2026-08-20 23:03:08.923 DEBUG (MainThread) [androidtvremote2] Received: remote_ime_key_inject { app_info { app_package: "org.xbmc.kodi" } }

Checking the log message the android tv remote doesn’t launch the app directly but checks the play store if you have the app installed - if you do, it starts it.

Now what fixed it for me:

I don’t remember the latest google play store version (it was either 52 something or 56 something). When I force stopped the play store and cleared the data I was able to launch kodi from homeassistant once then it stopped working again when I tried to test it again.

I then uninstalled the google play store updates (now my version is 24.9.17-21 …etc) and the android_tv commands started working for me again. I’m able to launch all the apps again every time.

One caveat: If you open the play store up again it will update back to the latest version and it will stop working again. Even if disabling auto updates in the play store it somehow updated back to the latest version for me.

So just don’t open the play store and hopefully you should be good. Hope this helps any of you guys aswell.

Edit: Not sure why this would be the case, possibly the play store updated how it handles app_links (maybe, I have no clue)?

Possible solution could be if the android_tv integration would just launch the app package itself instead of checking if it’s installed from the market. If not installed just throw a silent error or throw a notification toast app is not installed? If that could be possible

Edit 2: Device is Nvidia Shield TV 2019

7

I am seeing exactly the same issue with my Shield 2019.
Unable to launch the apps using Android TV integration for the last 3 days.

Google Play store version 52.6.
After I uninstalled the Play store updates and cleared cache, it worked for few seconds until the updates reinstalled automatically.

8

I solved my problem by instead using the Android debug bridge integration to open apps (just realized that you mentioned it works too in your original message)

9

Glad that worked for you. I can only get ADB to work on my Google streamer and it stopped working on my Chromecast 4k a long time ago as the integration can’t set up with them. What box do you have?

10

I also resorted to ADB to get apps to launch on my Panasonic OLED 42" TV. Works well.

11

Is there anyway to copy the application list from the Android TV remote integration to the Debug one ?

12

The integration page has now been updated, proposing to use deep links to launch the app is the most reliable method now (yes I use the ADB integration for now, but what if that fails at a certain stage too :see_no_evil_monkey:). Is there a way to find out whether an app supports deep links, and if so how do I know what format the deep link needs to look like?

13

It looks like this broke with HA Core 2026.8.0 update: https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues/178314

It seems to be a timing issue with HA restarts and integrations using aiofiles. On mine the integration failed to load and when it’s not running there’s no ‘Reload’ option. I disabled the integration, restarted HA, and then re-enable it. One user reported restarting HA caused it to fail again, but I’ve restarted several times and it’s not failed since.

14

Concerning the absence of deep links for Kodi, I submitted a PR for Kodi on 8/25/2026 that implements deep links for launching Kodi with “kodi://” and “kodi://launch”. It restores the ability to start the program using androidtvremote2, the library underlying the Android TV Remote integration, and hopefully it gets accepted for the upcoming Kodi version 22. Here’s a link if you want to check it out and perhaps voice your support for its inclusion:

Kodi deep link activity for Android- #29072