Android TV and Google TV

Android TV digital signage, in the browser your TV already has.

Open the player on the set, scan the code with your phone, and that screen is a sign. No player box, nothing you have to install, no per-device licence. The first screen is free forever, with a ChannelOS banner along the bottom of the screen.

Get a screen live, free See what goes on the screen

No card · nothing to install · pairs in about two minutes

The short answer

Yes, an Android TV can run digital signage on its own, with no player box and nothing installed. ChannelOS is a web page, so the browser already built into an Android TV, Google TV, box or HDMI stick is the player. You open the ChannelOS player address on the television, it shows a six character pairing code, you scan that code with your phone, and the screen joins your account. From then on you build and schedule the board from your phone or laptop and the TV follows within seconds. The first screen is free forever, with a ChannelOS banner along the bottom of the screen that any paid plan removes, and further screens are billed per screen per month on the pricing page. A native Android TV app is there too if you want one. It is not on Google Play yet, so you download it from this page, for Android 8.0 or newer, and the browser route still needs nothing installed.

Get the Android TV app

The hardware question

Does my Android TV need a digital signage player box?

No. The signage industry sells a player because most signage software is an app that has to be installed somewhere, and a television is a difficult place to install an app. ChannelOS is a web page instead, so the thing that plays the board is the browser that shipped with the set. That takes the box, the mounting bracket, the second HDMI port and the per-device licence out of the quote.

The longer version of that argument, including what the appliance was genuinely buying you, is in signage without an Android player and why there is no player box.

The player route

Four things between the software and the wall, three of them bought.

The player route, four steps A signage software licence leads to a player box bought per screen, then an HDMI cable and a spare port, then the TV on the wall. Signage software licence A player box, per screen An HDMI cable and a port The TV on your wall something you buy something you buy something you fit Three purchases before a board appears.

The ChannelOS route

Two steps, and you already own both ends of them.

The ChannelOS route, two steps The browser already in the TV shows a pairing code, your phone scans it, and the TV on the wall is playing. The browser in the TV The phone in your pocket The TV on your wall already there, shows a code scans the code, pairs the screen Nothing bought. Nothing installed.

What runs it

Which Android TV devices can run digital signage?

Any of them that can open a modern web page, which is nearly all of them. The thing that decides a screen is the browser engine inside it, not the processor and not the age of the case. A set or box from roughly 2018 onwards is usually fine. Older than that, the engine can be too old to size a board correctly, and a cheap current stick is a smaller job than fighting the one you have.

When a box is the right answer

A screen that is already playing keeps playing if the wifi drops, but it needs the connection back to come up again after a power cut, because nothing is cached on the television itself. If a screen has to survive a long outage entirely on its own, buy a player from a company that sells one and ask them about local storage. That is a real reason to pay for hardware. Ours is not one of them.

If the plan is bigger than one shop, and the screens are going on other people's walls with the slots sold to local businesses, the arithmetic and the awkward parts of that are worked through in running a local advertising business on Android TVs. What a second and a tenth screen cost is on the pricing page.

Setup

How do I set up digital signage on an Android TV?

Three steps, and only the first one happens at the television. Open the ChannelOS player address in the TV's browser, scan the code it shows with your phone, then build the board and put it on a channel. It takes about two minutes to get to a screen that is yours.

  1. Open the player on the TV

    In the television's own browser, go to the ChannelOS player address. A six character pairing code appears on the screen. This is the only step that happens at the TV.

  2. Scan the code with your phone

    The code joins that screen to your account. Name it, tell ChannelOS which way the set is mounted, and the wall is now something you can change from the counter.

  3. Put a show on a channel

    Describe the board in a sentence and let AI draft it, or start from a template. Schedule it on a channel and the screen plays the right thing at the right hour on its own clock.

The address you open on the television is play.channelos.tv, and it is worth saying plainly that it belongs on the TV rather than on your phone: the page it serves is a pairing code, so it means nothing anywhere else.

After pairing

The wall becomes something you change from the counter.

Nothing after the pairing step happens at the television. You work on your phone or a laptop, and the screens follow within seconds, which is the whole reason a web player is worth the trade it asks for.
  • Describe the board in a sentence and AI drafts the whole show, or start from a template and edit it
  • A channel is a named feed with a real daily timeline, so the screen plays the right thing at the right hour on its own clock
  • Edit a price and it is already on air, because the screen derives what to show rather than waiting for a push
  • One channel drives every screen you own, so the tenth Android TV is no more work than the second
A ChannelOS board playing full screen on a paired television

The native app

Is there an Android TV digital signage app?

Yes. It is not on Google Play yet, so you download it from us. The app is tv.channelos.player, version 1.0.2, a 169 KB APK for Android 8.0 or newer, built for Android TV and Google TV.

You do not need it: shows, schedules and pairing are identical in the TV's browser, and the board is the same either way. The app is about the screen being alone in the room at six in the morning. It tries to open when the TV powers on (best effort, because TV makers restrict apps that start themselves), holds the screen awake, retries a failed load by itself, rebuilds the page if its renderer crashes, and puts a menu on the remote that is drawn by the app rather than the page, so it still opens when the page is what broke.

Download the APK

On the TV itself, type channelos.tv/tv.apk into the Downloader app.

Version 1.0.2 · 169 KB · Android 8.0 or newer

SHA-256 e6b194ef42a576c83c6cc99ad30346e9dc0f8185f2758995d065585c1c77026c

To check a copy saved on a computer, run shasum -a 256 channelos-tv-1.0.2.apk (on Windows, certutil -hashfile channelos-tv-1.0.2.apk SHA256) and compare the result with the line above.

Getting a board onto the screen

The TV's browser

About two minutes, nothing installed

The app

The same player, in a shell around it
Coming back after the power returns

The TV's browser

Somebody opens the browser again

The app

Tries to open on boot, best effort, and still needs the internet back
Fixing a blank screen with the remote

The TV's browser

Whatever the TV's browser gives you

The app

A menu drawn by the app, so it opens even when the page failed
Can you have it today

The TV's browser

Yes

The app

Yes, download it from this page, Android 8.0 or newer

Every one of those rows has a catch next to it, and they are all written down in the full account of the Android TV app: what boot start can and cannot promise, how kiosk mode actually works (it makes the app eligible to be the TV's home app and then hands you to the television's own picker), the retry timings, and every row of the remote menu. Read that one if the six in the morning problem is what brought you here.

Install it

Four ways to install the APK on an Android TV or Google TV. Pick the one that matches what you have; the first two need nothing but the remote.

On a Google TV

Chromecast with Google TV, the Google TV Streamer and any set with the Google TV home screen. Google TV hides the install permission until Developer options are on, so that comes first.

  1. Open Settings, then System, then About. Highlight Android TV OS build and press OK on the remote 7 times, until the TV says You are now a developer!
  2. Open the Google Play Store on the TV, search for Downloader and install Downloader by AFTVnews.
  3. Open Downloader, select the address box, type channelos.tv/tv.apk and select Go.
  4. When the TV says it is not allowed to install unknown apps from this source, select Settings, switch Downloader to Allowed and press Back.
  5. Select Install. If Google Play Protect warns you, select More details, then Install anyway.
  6. Select Open. You can delete the downloaded file from Downloader's Files tab afterwards.

No prompt? The switch is under Settings, then Apps, then Security & restrictions, then Unknown sources. If it is greyed out, a kids or restricted profile is the usual cause, and the adb route still works.

On an Android TV set or box

Sets and boxes with the older Android TV home screen rather than Google TV. Developer options are usually not needed here.

  1. Open the Google Play Store, install Downloader by AFTVnews and open it.
  2. Type channelos.tv/tv.apk into the address box and select Go.
  3. At the security prompt, select Settings, switch Downloader on and press Back. With no prompt, go to Settings, then Device Preferences, then Security & restrictions, then Unknown sources, and switch Downloader on.
  4. Select Install, then Install anyway if Play Protect warns, then Open.

If Security & restrictions is missing on your box, turn on Developer options under Settings, then Device Preferences, then About by pressing OK on Build 7 times, and look again.

From your phone to the TV

For when typing an address with the remote is the hard part. The phone and the TV must be on the same network: guest Wi-Fi, and shop or cafe networks that keep devices apart, stop them finding each other.

  1. On a Google TV, turn on Developer options first, as in the Google TV steps.
  2. Install Send files to TV from the Play Store on the TV and on your Android phone.
  3. On the phone, tap Download the APK on this page, or open channelos.tv/tv.apk in Chrome. If Chrome warns about the file type, choose Download anyway.
  4. On the TV, open Send files to TV and select Receive.
  5. On the phone, open Send files to TV, select Send, pick channelos-tv-1.0.2.apk, then pick your TV.
  6. On the TV, select the file, then Open. At the security prompt, allow Send files to TV and press Back, then select Install, and Install anyway if Play Protect warns.

For installers: adb

For a laptop with Android SDK Platform-Tools. adb skips the unknown sources switch entirely, which makes it the dependable route on a site visit.

  1. On the TV, turn on Developer options (on the older Android TV home screen they sit under Device Preferences rather than System), then switch on USB debugging inside them.
  2. Find the TV's IP address under Settings, then Network & Internet.
  3. Android TV 12 or older: run adb connect <ip>:5555 and accept Allow USB debugging? on the TV. Android TV 13 or 14: switch on Wireless debugging, choose Pair device with pairing code, run adb pair <ip>:<pairing port> with the code shown, then adb connect <ip>:<port> with the port on that screen.
  4. Install, or update in place: adb install -r channelos-tv-1.0.2.apk
  5. Switch USB debugging and Wireless debugging off again before you leave.

After it installs

Open ChannelOS from the TV's home screen. A six character pairing code appears, and you pair it from your phone exactly as you would in the browser: scan the code, or type it into ChannelOS on any computer, and the screen joins your account. Shows, schedules and pairing work the same either way.

Two sides

Who should not run digital signage on an Android TV?

Two groups, and in both cases the honest answer is to buy something else rather than to buy us and hope.

If the screen has to survive an outage on its own

A board that is already playing keeps playing when the wifi drops, because it runs its slides off a clock it has already synced. It cannot start from cold without a connection, because nothing is cached on the television. If a site has a nightly power cut or a line that dies for hours, buy a player box with local storage from a company that sells one, and ask them about local storage specifically before you pay.

If you have to prove what played, and when

ChannelOS has no proof of play reporting at all. No log, no report, nothing to hand an advertiser or attach to a contract. If you are quoting an installation with an SLA in it, or selling slots to businesses who will want evidence their advert aired, buy a platform that ships a playback log and verify it on their hardware before you sign. This is a real gap and it is not a soft one.

Everything else about the trade, including the cases where a dedicated player genuinely earns its cost, is in signage without an Android player.

Keep reading

The Android TV guides.

Android TV signage questions.

Can I run digital signage on an Android TV without installing anything?
Yes. ChannelOS is a web page, so the browser already built into an Android TV or Google TV set is the player. You open the player address on the TV, a six character pairing code appears, you scan it with your phone, and that screen is yours to schedule. The browser route needs nothing sideloaded, no developer options switched on and no per-device licence. The native Android TV app is an optional download on top, and pairing works the same with or without it.
Is there a free digital signage app for Android TV?
Yes, and the app costs nothing to download. ChannelOS has a native Android TV app, tv.channelos.player, for Android 8.0 or newer. It is not on Google Play yet, so you download the APK from this page and install it yourself. It is not a separate purchase: a screen running the app is on the same plan as a screen running the browser, and one screen is free for good. Free screens show a ChannelOS banner along the bottom of the screen, and any paid plan removes it. Anything advertised as a free Android TV signage app is either a browser page like ours, a trial with a screen limit, or a free tier that charges for the second screen, so check what happens at screen two before you commit.
How do I install the ChannelOS APK on a Google TV?
Turn on Developer options first: Settings, then System, then About, then press OK on "Android TV OS build" 7 times. Install Downloader by AFTVnews from the Play Store on the TV, type channelos.tv/tv.apk into its address box and select Go. When the TV blocks the install, select Settings, allow Downloader and press Back, then select Install, and Install anyway if Play Protect warns. Never turn Play Protect off to do it. Open the app and pair the code it shows from your phone, the same as in the browser. Menu names vary a little between TV makers. If the app later ships on Google Play, you may need to uninstall this copy and pair the screen again first.
Android TV box or smart TV: which is better for digital signage?
Use the smart TV if its browser is current, and add a box only when it is not. What decides a screen is the browser engine inside it, not the processor or the age of the case, and a set older than about 2018 often carries an engine too old to size a board correctly. A cheap Android TV box or HDMI stick then fixes it for less than a signage player costs, because you are buying a browser rather than an appliance with a licence attached. The one case where a real player box wins is a site that has to keep playing through a long outage, and that is worth paying for.
Does it work on Google TV, Fire TV and webOS as well as Android TV?
Yes. Nothing in ChannelOS is Android specific: the requirement is a reasonably modern web browser, so Google TV, Fire TV, LG webOS, Samsung Tizen, a Chromebox and a laptop in kiosk mode on the HDMI port all work the same way. The pairing step is identical on every one of them. The native app is Android only, and we have not tested it on Fire TV, which is another reason the browser route is the one we point people at first.
How do I set up digital signage on an Android TV, step by step?
Three steps and roughly two minutes. Open the TV's browser and go to the player address, which shows a six character pairing code on the screen. Scan that code with your phone, or type it into ChannelOS on any computer, and the screen joins your account. Then build a show, either by describing it in a sentence and letting AI draft it or by starting from a template, and put it on a channel so the TV plays the right thing at the right hour. You edit from your phone afterwards and the screen follows within seconds.
Who should not run digital signage on an Android TV?
Anyone whose screen has to keep playing through a power cut or a long internet outage, and anyone who needs proof of play. A board that is already playing survives the wifi dropping, but nothing is cached on the television, so a power cut leaves the screen waiting until the connection returns. ChannelOS also has no playback log of any kind, so if you are quoting a job with an SLA or reporting to an advertiser, buy a platform that ships a caching player box and a playback report instead. Verify that claim on their hardware before you sign.

The questions about what the app does once it is on the wall, about boot start, the remote menu and what it can see on your TV, are on the answers page.

Put a board on the Android TV you already own.

Open the player on the screen, scan the code from your phone, and the first board is up. First screen free forever, with a ChannelOS banner along the bottom of the screen.

Get a screen live, free See pricing

Free screens show a ChannelOS banner along the bottom of the screen, and any paid plan removes it.

Sell it instead of buying it. The ChannelOS partner program pays 20% of what each business you refer pays us for their first 12 months, then 10% for as long as they stay. Free to join, nothing to stock.

See the partner program →