Introduction

Amino TV Launcher provides an interface for accessing TV applications, managing favorites, viewing notifications, and returning to your configured TV application. This guide explains how to use the launcher with your remote control and how to customize its appearance and behavior using INI configuration.

Prerequisites

To navigate the launcher, your media player must have Amino TV Launcher installed and configured. You need a compatible remote control with directional buttons, OK, BACK, and HOME. Automatic TV-app startup and color-button shortcuts depend on your deployment configuration.

To customize the launcher, your media player must be configured to receive INI settings through Amino Engage, and you must know how to edit and deploy those settings. Some customizations also require accessible image URLs, valid installed application package IDs, or Android activity identifiers.

Note: Available features, screen appearance, and configuration values may vary by launcher build, product overlay, and deployed configuration.

In this article

Navigation and features

Starting the device and opening the launcher

Understanding the launcher interface

Using favorite applications

Browsing installed applications

Viewing notifications

Returning to Live TV

Configuration and customization

Example: Bordeaux and Champagne appearance profile

Customizing branding

Configuring side-panel colors

Customizing text colors

Styling actions and utility icons

Configuring visibility and destinations

Pinning favorite applications

Configuring color-button shortcuts

Applying and validating changes

Summary

Starting the device and opening the launcher

In a TV-first deployment, the configured TV application starts automatically when you power on the media player. Amino TV Launcher remains hidden during the handoff, so the application can open without an intermediate launcher screen. Depending on the application and account state, you may see a sign-in page, Live TV, or the last resumed screen.

To open Amino TV Launcher:

1. Press HOME when Amino TV Launcher is configured as your default launcher.
2. Alternatively, press the GREEN button if it has been configured to open Launcher Home.

HOME may return you to the last launcher view. When configured, GREEN explicitly selects the Home screen.

Understanding the launcher interface

The interface consists of a side panel for primary destinations, a top area for utilities, and a main content area for favorite applications or the full application grid.

Side panel

Press UP or DOWN to move through the side panel, then press OK to activate a destination. Press RIGHT to enter the application area. Focused destinations receive a visual highlight.

Top functions

From the first application row or top side-panel item, press UP to reach the top controls. Press DOWN to return to the current application grid.

Using favorite applications

The Home screen displays your favorite applications. Netflix is fixed in the first position. Additional applications may be fixed through INI configuration, and you can manage other eligible favorites.

Opening a favorite

1. Select Home from the side panel.
2. Use the directional buttons to highlight an application.
3. Press OK to open it.

Adding a favorite

1. Select the Add App card on the Home screen.
2. Choose an eligible installed application from the list.
3. Confirm your selection to add it to Favorite Apps.

Reordering favorites

1. On the Home screen, long-press a favorite that can be moved to enter reorder mode.
2. Use the directional buttons to reposition the application.
3. Press BACK to confirm the order.

Note: Netflix and applications fixed through INI configuration cannot be removed or reordered by the viewer.

Browsing installed applications

The Apps screen shows eligible installed TV applications in a navigable grid.

1. Select Apps from the side panel, or press YELLOW if the shortcut is configured.
2. Use the directional buttons to navigate through the application grid.
3. Press OK to launch the highlighted application.

Select the sort button beside the Apps heading to change the application order. Press LEFT from the first column to return to the side panel, or press BACK to return to Home.

Viewing notifications

The notification panel shows available system and application notifications over the current launcher view.

1. Select the notification bell, or press BLUE when the Notifications shortcut is configured and supported.
2. Press UP or DOWN to select a notification.
3. Press OK to invoke the selected notification action.
4. Use the minus control to dismiss a notification when that control is available.
5. Press BACK to close the panel and return to the underlying launcher view.

Notification indicator states

Opening the notification panel marks active notifications as read. A newly arriving notification returns the bell to its unread state.

Returning to Live TV

Use the launcher’s Live TV destination to reopen the TV application configured for your deployment.

1. Select Live TV in the side panel, or press RED if the shortcut is configured.
2. The media player opens the configured TV application.
3. To return to Amino TV Launcher, press HOME or the configured GREEN shortcut.

Note: The TV application displayed depends on your deployment and account state. The screenshots in this article use YouTube TV as an example only.

Example: Bordeaux and Champagne appearance profile

The following example demonstrates how an operator can apply a coordinated visual theme. The screenshot shows the Bordeaux and Champagne profile documented in the customization reference. This is an example configuration, not the default appearance of every device.

Sample appearance from a reference media player; image artwork and INI-defined colors are different configuration elements.

Example INI colors:

home.button_focused_color=#FFF7F1EC
home.button_selected_color=#FFE7C7A3
home.button_unselected_color=#FFBBAFB8
home.header_text_color=#FFF7F1EC
home.app_name_text_color=#FFE4D9DF
home.clock_text_color=#FFF7F1EC
home.action_button_focused_color=#FF3B1930
home.action_button_unfocused_color=#14F7F1EC
home.action_button_focus_stroke_color=#FFE7C7A3
home.utility_icon_color=#FFF7F1EC

The profile uses separate image assets for the main background, operator logo, and left-side panel. Add your own hosted artwork URLs using the three image parameters described in the next section. The example theme does not use home.button_text_color because that parameter has no visible effect in the documented launcher implementation.

Customizing branding

You can replace the built-in launcher background, side-panel logo, and side-panel background with your own image assets.

Example INI settings:

home.background_url=https://example.com/ui/background.png
home.logo_url=https://example.com/ui/logo.png
home.side_panel_background_url=https://example.com/ui/sidebar.png

Replace the example URLs with your accessible image URLs. The image assets can change without changing the application-grid geometry.

Note: The thin mint outlines in the customization screenshots highlight affected interface regions for documentation purposes. They are not part of the launcher interface.

Image sizing and design guidelines

Main background: Match your artwork to the intended screen aspect ratio. The background scales to its display area, so avoid dense detail behind application cards, headings, and the clock.

Main background area highlighted in the reference guide.

Operator logo: The reviewed implementation uses a 100 dp by 40 dp logo holder with fitCenter scaling. Keep clear edges and modest padding. Transparent surrounding pixels are trimmed in the documented source.

Operator logo appears at the top of the side panel.

Side-panel background: Use a separate, appropriately proportioned image instead of reusing the main widescreen wallpaper. For reference, at 1920 x 1080 resolution and display density 320, the documented 137 dp rail occupies about 274 pixels.

The left navigation rail uses its own background asset.

Configuring side-panel colors

Side-panel icons have selected, focused, and unselected color states. The selected state takes priority over focus.

Note: home.button_text_color has no visible effect in the documented launcher revision. Do not rely on it to change an on-screen label.

Visual examples: A focused unselected icon uses home.button_focused_color, while the selected Home or Apps destination uses home.button_selected_color, even when it has focus.

Focused icon example.

Selected destination example.

Customizing text colors

These settings do not recolor application artwork. Text in the Add Favorite App chooser remains white, and reorder-hint text uses its own fixed resource color.

The example below highlights application-name labels. The same theme uses ivory headings and clock digits, while app banners preserve their own branding.

Only launcher-generated application labels change; text embedded in application artwork remains unchanged.

Styling actions and utility icons

Note: Utility icon tint does not change Microphone and Keyboard artwork or the side-panel Settings icon. The notification-count badge has its own style.

The Add App card shares action-button background and focus-outline options with the microphone, keyboard, notification, and sort controls. These parameters change the surrounding control surfaces, not the microphone or keyboard artwork.

Focused action-button example.

The notification bell, Sort icon, and Add App symbol and label share the utility icon color.

Configuring visibility and destinations

You can show or hide the clock and Settings entry, and change which destinations are opened by Settings and Live TV.

Example: hide the clock and Settings entry:

home.clock_visible=false
home.settings_visible=false

Hiding Settings removes its launcher entry but does not uninstall Android Settings. If you change home.settings_component, the specified activity must be available on the media player. The package set with tvapp.package_id should identify your configured TV application.

To confirm a visibility change, check the actual side-panel entry or top-right clock after the configuration refreshes. Hiding the Settings entry does not remove Android Settings from the media player.

Settings entry when visible.

Settings destination: The example below uses com.android.tv.settings/.connectivity.NetworkActivity as the target activity. Use only an activity installed and available on your product; this option does not change the look of Android Settings.

The Settings entry opens an Android activity selected with home.settings_component.

Live TV destination: tvapp.package_id chooses the launcher Live TV application, but it does not by itself enable TV-first startup on every device. Automatic boot or resume behavior depends on the product integration.

Pinning favorite applications

Use home.app_pinning_list to define the order of additional fixed applications in the Home screen’s Favorite Apps row.

Example INI setting:

home.app_pinning_list=com.example.tv,com.example.music

• Netflix (com.netflix.ninja) is always fixed at position 1, cannot be removed or reordered by the viewer, and is not duplicated if it appears in the INI list.
• The configured list starts at position 2. You can provide up to 32 valid package IDs.
• Only eligible installed TV applications are displayed; this setting does not install applications.
• Viewer-added favorites follow the fixed applications.
• Blank, invalid, and duplicate IDs are ignored.

An explicitly empty list leaves Netflix as the only fixed favorite. If you omit the key, the product resource pin list applies after Netflix; that list may vary by product or overlay.

Fixed applications follow Netflix and precede viewer-added favorites.

Configuring color-button shortcuts

Map the remote control’s color buttons to launcher views or other supported destinations using the following INI parameters. All four keys have empty source base values, meaning no launcher override is defined by default.

Example INI settings:

key.link.red=aminotvlauncher://v1/livetv
key.link.green=aminotvlauncher://v1/home
key.link.yellow=aminotvlauncher://v1/apps
key.link.blue=aminotvlauncher://v1/notifications

The launcher handles these mappings while it is in the foreground. To handle remote-control buttons outside the launcher, configure the corresponding system-wide actions through Amino Engage. Other supported actions include application package URIs (for example, pkg://com.example.tv), browsable deep links, and validated explicit intent URIs.

Example: When the build supports notification integration, you can map BLUE to Notifications while Amino TV Launcher is in the foreground. To trigger this action from another application, configure the corresponding system-wide key action in Amino Engage.

Notification panel example; physical color-button mappings were not exercised during the reference capture.

Applying and validating changes

Step 1: Deliver the INI configuration

Publish the required INI definitions and values to your media player through its Amino Engage configuration.

Step 2: Refresh the launcher

Supported INI update events reload the configuration values. When the configuration changes, the launcher refreshes its interface. If the INI provider is unavailable, the launcher retains the last-known configuration.

Step 3: Verify the results

1. Check the artwork, headings, clock, and Settings visibility on Home.
2. Check the app grid and application labels on All Apps.
3. Move focus across side-panel items and action buttons to confirm their colors and outlines.
4. Confirm the fixed favorite order and available viewer-managed favorites.
5. Test Live TV, Settings, and any configured color-button shortcuts.

Supported value formats

Notes: Use a new image URL when you change artwork if the old URL could be cached. Notification availability is controlled by the launcher build rather than a visibility INI parameter.

The source base values in this article describe the documented launcher source, not necessarily the factory profile or values delivered through product overlays and Amino Engage. The customization illustrations are based on an Amigo7N running Android 14 and Amino TV Launcher 0.10. Settings, availability, and results may differ for other products and launcher builds.

References

Amino_TV_Launcher_UX_Guide_Amino_v1.9.pdf

Amino_TV_Launcher_UX_Customization_Reference.pdf