Claude made my Old Android TV feel Brand New!

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Click Here to watch my youtube video on it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP2SGGVsaB0)!

My parents have an old Android TV with 2 GB of RAM. It was slow, and the home screen was full of sponsored rows you couldn't turn off.

So I had Claude Code fix it from my laptop, over Wi-Fi.

It turned off the bloatware and the tracking, and uninstalled 11 apps nobody used, like Apple TV, Spotify and YouTube Music. Free RAM went up roughly 90%.

Then it built them a new home screen from scratch: a big clock, their streaming apps, the HDMI inputs and Settings, on a plain background. It uses about 12 MB of RAM.

Animations are off, the screensaver is gone, and the TV boots straight to home and sleeps after 5 minutes.

The essentials stayed on: Google Play, the keyboard, Bluetooth for the remote, and the HDMI inputs. And almost nothing is gone for good. Everything it turned off comes back with one command.

What Claude did, step by step

1. Connected to the TV over Wi-Fi.

2. Checked every app and what was using memory, before touching anything.

3. Turned apps off instead of deleting them.

4. Uninstalled only the 11 truly useless ones.

5. Built a new home screen with only my parents' apps.

6. Turned off animations and the screensaver, set sleep to 5 minutes, and made it boot straight to home.

Before you start

Disclaimer: this worked on my parents' TV, but every TV is different. Go slow, let Claude ask before each change and take backup, but in the end it's AI so do it at your own risk.

Your laptop needs a way to talk to the TV. It takes about two minutes. The menu names can differ a little by brand.

1. On the TV, open Settings, then Device Preferences (or System), then About.

2. Scroll to Build and press OK on it 7 times. You'll see "You are now a developer."

3. Go back one step. Open the new Developer options menu and turn on USB debugging. If you see Network debugging or Wireless debugging, turn that on too.

4. Find your TV's IP address: Settings, then Network & Internet, then your Wi-Fi network. It looks like 192.168.1.25.

5. Make sure your laptop is on the same Wi-Fi as the TV, and install Claude Code on it.

6. The first time Claude connects, the TV will ask "Allow debugging?" Tick "Always allow from this computer" and press Allow.

Not sure how your TV does it? Skip the guesswork and ask Claude first. Tell it your TV's brand and model, then ask:

I have a <brand and model> TV. How can you connect to it from my laptop and take control of it? Walk me through every step.

It will tell you exactly what to turn on for your TV.

BTW I build things like this with AI every week on my YouTube channel, If you want more of these, subscribe: youtube.com/@ansubkhan

The prompt to start with

Once the TV is ready, paste this into Claude Code on your laptop:

I want to clean up my Android TV and make it faster. Its IP address is <TV_IP>. Help me connect to it over Wi-Fi first, and walk me through anything I need to tap on the TV.

Then, before changing anything, show me every app on the TV in plain English, split into three lists: safe to turn off, needed by the TV, and apps I use. Also check how much free memory it has right now. Ask me before every change. Turn apps off instead of deleting them, so I can undo anything later. Never turn off Google Play, the keyboard, Bluetooth (my remote needs it) or anything my HDMI inputs need. Keep a list of everything you change and how to undo it.

When that's done, restart the TV, make sure everything stayed off, and show me free memory before and after.

Finally, give me a simple home screen that only shows these apps: <your apps>, with a clock, no ads and no recommendations. Also turn off animations and the screensaver, and make the TV go to sleep after 5 minutes.

Two tips: let it ask before every change, and never turn off Google Play or the keyboard.

if you want to see how I run my day with Grok Bot and X, here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV0tTIjpfM4&t=263s