Mantel TV Launcher: No Ads

Mantel is a home screen for Android TV and Google TV that shows your apps and nothing else. No sponsored row, no trailer playing at you, no account.

YOUR APPS, YOUR ORDER
Pin what you use to Favourites and put them in the order you like. Everything else sits in an alphabetical grid, four to eight columns wide, using the TV banners the apps ship with. Rename any app in your own words. Hide the ones you never open.

FOLDERS
Group apps into folders. A folder shows a mosaic of what is inside, and opens in a sheet over the home screen.

YOUR PICTURE ON THE WALL
Set any photo as the wallpaper, then dim and blur it so the grid stays readable. Four looks (Slate, Ember, Moss and Ink) change the ground and the focus colour.

CONTINUE WATCHING, ONLY IF YOU WANT IT
A row of what you were watching, from the apps that publish it to Android TV. Off by default. Wide or poster cards.

INPUTS
On a TV with HDMI inputs they get their own row, so switching to the console is one press.

THE HOME BUTTON
Mantel offers itself as a home app. On TVs that ask, choose Mantel and then Always. On Google TV sets that always send Home to their own screen, Mantel can bring itself up over it when you turn that on under Remote buttons. Some sets do not allow this at all, and Mantel says so rather than pretending.

REMOTE BUTTONS
Give the coloured or spare buttons on your remote a job: open an app, play or pause, mute, Live TV, or the screensaver. You can also make the Home button open Mantel. Both use Android's accessibility service: it gets the buttons you press and a signal when another home screen opens, nothing from other apps, and it cannot read the screen. It stores nothing, and it stays off until you agree in Mantel and turn it on in the TV's Accessibility settings.

SCREENSAVER
Use your wallpaper or a folder of photos as the TV's screensaver, with a clock if you like.

FOR PARENTS
A PIN can guard Settings and hidden apps, so the children's TV stays the way you set it.

BACKUP
Save every setting to a file in Downloads and restore it on another TV.

IT STAYS YOURS
No ads, ever. No account, no sign-in, no tracking. Nothing you do is sent anywhere. Mantel is free to try for 14 days, then one payment unlocks it for good. No subscription. The launcher keeps working while you decide.

WHAT IT ASKS FOR
Mantel needs no special permissions to be your home screen. The remote buttons service is optional: Mantel explains it and asks first, then you turn it on in the TV's Accessibility settings. Internet access is used only by Google Play to check the purchase.