Let's say it's Monday. Joseph Rando just kissed his partner and 2.3 children lovingly on their foreheads - wishing them a sun-drenched, carefree day of delirious jubilation. As he walked out the door, he noticed that his view suddenly consisted primarily of the face of a stranger, who had spontaneously come into existence at an uncomfortable lack of distance to his own. At an inexplicably unnatural volume the stranger - repurposing an unapologetic opulence of saliva - yelled: "I strongly recommend drinking your morning coffee at the diner..." After the stranger ran off backwards while never breaking eye-contact, Joseph started his plans for the day in a state of profound confusion, attempting to somehow process the fully unprompted display of violent advice.
Let's say every day after that manic Monday opened with the same exact scene. Does it seem more sane for Joseph - having seemingly descended into a special kind of hell - to involve law enforcement by Friday, or to adopt this daily repeat of the same incessant recommendation as part of his morning routine?
Google TV is our stranger - except there's channels, apps and services instead of coffee being force-fed, with no way to stop it and nobody to call — and its a 'privilege' we've paid for.
After powering on my Chromecast, Google TV welcomes me by using 50% of my screen to display:
'All The Things I Could Watchon the apps I never installed on any device, if I subscribed to the services I disabled in my settings'
On my phone this section takes up 100% of the available screen-size.
I've scoured multiple Communities to find a plethora of posts all asking the same thing I was scouring for, yet all were locked with inane responses as the "recommended answer". The irony. Before I bother considering spending the $50 price-increase for an ethernet-port and an extra button, I'd like a definitive answer* to two simple questions:
Can the harassment (incessant and generally inherently useless) recommendations either be made actually relevant (i.e. available on apps/services I do use), and/or be turned off entirely?
Assuming If not, is that also/still true on the new Google TV Streamer - despite the overwhelming abundance of complaints that's been actively ignored for years?
*To clarify: Contrary to apparent popular belief, what definitely does not answer this question is referring to: - the 'Content preferences' under Profile, as they only pertain to content; - the (pointless) 'Your services' under Profile, as they are wholly ignored; - the 'Apps-only mode', that, despite the description stating "When on, this will hide Google's recommendations from your home screen [...]," does not hide Google's recommendations from my home screen, and, despite the name, still recommends content on apps that are not and have never been installed. - a feedback-form, as the aforementioned complaints have been present in every corner of the internet since the conception of the platform, meaning affiliate marketing revenue is ultimately valued more than the paying customer.
Just hold down the center button on your remote for about 2 seconds and an option will appear to "hide" ad. Do that for all five recommendation dots and that will leave you with a blank home screen showing only the apps you have installed.
This would have worked as a band-aid (only on my Chromecast - not the app), but it seems that doing this auto-enables Apps-only mode, which does things I don't want - like disabling the Assistant system-wide. After turning Apps-only mode off again, hiding any recommendation is no longer possible.
This is unacceptably buggy and I wouldn't suggest doing this.
