Alex Ruben
How To Manage Aha & Viki Movies and Shows on Your Google TV Home Screen and Recommendations
Getting your Google TV home screen just the way you want it can be a bit tricky sometimes, especially when annoying recommendations from services like Aha and Viki keep popping up. If you’re tired of seeing content you don’t care about or want more control over what suggestions appear, this guide’s got a couple of simple methods. It’s all about tweaking settings—either within the device itself or through your account—to block or enable those streaming service suggestions. Hopefully, with these tweaks, you’ll make your viewing flow more personalized and less cluttered. These tips work for Chromecast with Google TV, and if you’ve got a device running Android TV OS 14 or 15, you’re all set.
How to Manage Aha & Viki Recommendations on Google TV
Access the Services Management Settings
First up, let’s try the straightforward way. Usually, recommendations are controlled via the Manage Services menu on the device. This is kind of hidden, but once you know where to look, it’s not bad:
- From the home screen, go to Settings (that gear icon in the top right or in the quick menu).
- Scroll down to find Apps (sometimes under Device Preferences or directly labeled as such) and then select Manage Installed Apps.
- Look for the Aha or Viki app in the list (you might have to go into See all apps if it’s hidden).
Once you find the app, depending on your device, you might see toggles or options related to showing recommendations:
- If there’s an option called Show on Home Screen or Recommendations, disable it.
- This immediately stops their suggestions from cluttering your homepage.
It’s kind of weird—sometimes toggles don’t stick right away, so a reboot might be needed. On some setups, this only works after you restart the device or clear the app cache.
Manage Preferences via Your Google Account
Found that the device method didn’t do the trick? Sometimes, you gotta go more granular through your Google account profiles:
- Navigate to Settings > Accounts & Sign-in.
- Select your profile and then go into Google > Data & Privacy.
- Here, some options allow you to tweak recommendations related to connected streaming services. Sometimes, this is a little hidden, so look for anything related to content preferences or connected apps.
Adjusting these can help the system better respect your choices about what gets recommended—on some devices, this might influence the suggestions you see on the home page.
Note: Google often updates those settings without much warning, so if options are missing, check if a software update is available for your device.
Extra Tips & Troubleshooting
Been fiddling with settings but recommendations still won’t budge? Here’s a couple more tricks:
- Go into the apps themselves — for example, open the Viki app, then look into its settings; some apps let you disable recommendations or sync preferences with your account.
- Clear cache/data for problematic apps through Settings > Apps. Sometimes, stubborn suggestions carry over because of cached data.
- If recommendations from a specific service just keep coming back, removing or reinstalling that app might help reset the profile data.
- And yes, restart your Google TV often helps — a lot of weird glitches crop up right after software updates or app changes.
Wrap-up
This whole process isn’t always perfect, and sometimes those streaming service recommendations are persistent. The key is to explore both device-based settings and your account profiles. Usually, toggling the availability in Manage Services or within app settings does the trick, but on occasion, a device reboot or cache clear is needed. Not exactly streamlined, but these methods have saved a lot of frustration for those sick of unwanted suggestions cluttering their home screen.
Summary
- Found the Manage Services menu in Settings or Apps to toggle recommendations off/on.
- Checked streaming app settings for options to disable recommendations directly from the app.
- Adjusted account preferences via Google profile settings for more personalized control.
- Sometimes a reboot or app cache clear is necessary to see changes.
Fingers crossed this helps
Getting those home screens dialed in isn’t always instant, but once it’s set, it’s so much nicer scrolling through without constant streams of stuff you don’t care about. Just keep in mind, Google keeps tweaking how these options work, so if something’s not working, check for updates or recheck the settings after a reboot. Hopefully, this shaves off a few hours of annoyance for someone. Good luck!