Can I use Android TV or Google TV devices with Fully Kiosk?

Android TV or Google TV is a feature reduced version of Android OS for large non-touch devices. The available features are often cut arbitrarily without a proper documentation and the resulting restrictions can change in an unpredictable way across different vendors and OS versions.

You can use the long press on the back button to open the menu instead of swiping. In Single App Mode you can show the Kiosk PIN dialog by pressing the Home Button.

Please use the latest Fully Kiosk Browser 1.61, Fully Video Kiosk 1.21 and Fully Single App 1.21 with Android TV. These versions got major improvements for Android TV.

On older Android TV devices some permissions (like Device Admin or Overlay Permissions) might be not available. The related Fully Kiosk options will be greyed out and can't be used. Try using the workaround for Android Go device to grant the Overlay (Show on Top) permission. To permanently ignore the Device Admin permission you can import this settings file. Feature like Screen Off Timer or Scheduled Sleep wont work then of course.

Some devices like TCL Google TV require a special permission for autostart that can be grandted by ADB like this:

adb shell appops set [package] APP_AUTO_START allow

When enabling the Kiosk Mode setting the default home app usually fails in Android TV. After this step you have to restart the app one more time. If the home button still allows to exit to the home screen, enable Fully Kiosk in Android TV Accessibility Settings for a better home button protection.

Another, more complex workaround requires disabling the default home app by ADB:

Workaround for Home Button Lockdown with Android TV

This workaround only works Google compliant Android TV devices. Please try it on your own risk if you know what you do. We can’t provide any support. Note that these settings could be reverted by the next Android TV update.

1. Download and install the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) tools for Windows, Mac or Linux on your PC

2. On the tablet navigate to Settings >> Device Preferences >> About , and keep tapping on the Build Number until the “You are a developer” popups.

3. Go to the Settings >> Device Preferences >> Developer Options, and enable the switch at the top to the ‘On’ position. Scroll down to the Debugging section, and switch USB Debugging to on. Now you can use ADB with your Android TV. Plug it into your PC with any USB cable.

4. Enable Kiosk Mode and enable Disable Home Button and proceed to enabling the Kiosk Mode. After enabling the Kiosk Mode in Fully Kiosk run following commands on the PC in your ADB folder. This will set Fully Kiosk as the new home app.

adb devices
adb shell pm set-home-activity [package]/de.ozerov.fully.LauncherReplacement
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tvlauncher

Use the following package names as [package] in this command:

• Fully Kiosk Browser: de.ozerov.fully
• Fully Single App Kiosk: com.fullykiosk.singleapp
• Fully Video Kiosk: com.fullykiosk.videokiosk
• Fully Kiosk Browser EMM edition: com.fullykiosk.emm

5. When you want to disable the Kiosk Mode after disabling the Kiosk Mode in Fully Kiosk run following commands in order to return back to the default Android TV Launcher.

adb shell pm enable --user 0 com.google.android.tvlauncher
adb shell pm set-home-activity com.google.android.tvlauncher/.MainActivity

Device provisioning by ADB method can work with some Android TV devices. You however have to remove all Google accounts prior to provisioning.