Apps grid on TV card — possible for Android TV? (Sony Bravia A95K)

1

Hey all,
Loving the Astrion so far, but I’ve hit a wall trying to get app launchers (Netflix, Disney+, etc.) showing up on the TV card’s touchscreen. I’ve seen this in the recent RosCard tutorial video and in the v1.1.2 promo material — Apple TV setups have a beautiful four-square apps icon that opens a grid full of streaming app icons. I’d love the same on my Android TV view but I can’t figure out how to get there.
My setup:

Sony Bravia XR-A95K (Google TV)
HA core 2026.4.4
RosCard v1.1.2
Both the Sony Bravia (braviatv) integration and the Android TV Remote integration set up against the TV (they coexist nicely — I use Bravia for IRCC commands and Android TV Remote for the Home key to reach the Google TV launcher)
aiks-tv-card with tv_type: android_tv
What I’ve tried:
media_play_entity: media_player.living_room_sony_tv_2 (the Bravia one) — apps icon appears on the touchscreen, but the grid only shows my HDMI inputs (HDMI 1, HDMI 2, HDMI 3, HDMI 4, Video) because that’s what Sony Bravia exposes in source_list. No streaming apps.

media_play_entity: media_player.living_room_tv_2 (the Android TV Remote one) — apps icon disappears entirely. The Android TV Remote integration doesn’t populate source_list at all on the entity.

Configured the Android TV Remote integration’s “Configure applications list” option with YouTube + package name + icon URL, hoping the Astrion would pick it up. Doesn’t seem to read that — the icon stays gone with the Android TV Remote entity selected.
So it seems like the Astrion firmware reads source_list off the media_play_entity and dumps whatever’s there into the grid. Which works great for Apple TV (where the Apple TV integration exposes apps as sources), but for Android TV nothing exposes streaming apps that way.My questions:
Is there a “right” way to get streaming app icons (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, etc.) into the apps grid on tv_type: android_tv? Some integration or config I’m missing?

If the answer is “no, that feature is Apple TV only right now” — is it on the roadmap? It feels like it should be possible since the Android TV Remote integration in HA already has an apps configuration dialog for its own UI — would just need RosCard / the Astrion firmware to read from there too.

As a workaround I built a separate Launcher view with an aiks-scene-card listing scripts that call media_player.play_media with media_content_type: app (works perfectly with the Bravia integration). Is this the recommended path on Android TV, or is there something cleaner?
Any insight appreciated. Happy to share my dashboard config / scripts if useful for others on Android TV.

Thanks in advance

2

source_list: is where the apps grid button is populated. You are seeing what your tv is exposing.

On my Nvida Shield this is populated with apps, it is an android TV device. It brings up a lot of apps (35 too many)

Astrion needs a way to filter/select from this list of apps with the ROS TV card configuration. Another option would be to allow custom adb commands.

Also needs an option to add custom artwork to these apps, prime video, netflix, youtube and spotify are the only ones that show artwork for my Shield.

Your workaround seems like the cleanest solution.

1 Like
3

Following up here for anyone else on Android TV who runs into this — found a much cleaner solution that actually populates the apps grid on the TV card the way I was originally hoping for.

There’s a third-party HACS integration called Bravia REST API by cmos486 that uses Sony’s REST API (PSK auth) to discover all installed Android apps on the TV and publishes them merged with HDMI inputs as a unified source_list on its own media_player entity. Pointing the Astrion TV card’s media_play_entity at that entity makes everything appear directly in the apps grid — Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, YouTube, Plex, F1 TV, Crave, Apple TV, all of them. Tapping a tile fires media_player.select_source which the integration translates to the right Sony API call internally. App launches just work.

Repo: https://github.com/cmos486/Bravia-REST-API (add as a HACS Custom Repository, integration category)

Setup is straightforward — install via HACS, restart HA, enable PSK on the TV (Settings → Network & Internet → Home Network → IP control → Authentication: Normal and Pre-Shared Key), then add the integration via Settings → Devices & Services with the TV’s IP and PSK.

It’s brand new (initial release was about 3 weeks ago) but the author is very responsive — I reported a couple of cosmetic issues earlier today (HTML entities not decoded in app titles, and a request for an exclusion filter for junk system apps like “BRAVIA notifications”, “Eco Dashboard”, etc.) and he had v1.3.2 fixing both shipped within hours, plus v1.4.0 right after that. The integration coexists fine with the official Bravia integration — I’m using the official one for IRCC commands (D-pad, volume, etc.) and Bravia REST API for the apps grid, all on the same TV.

For me this completely replaced the separate Launcher view + scripts workaround. The post-tap navigation gap that I mentioned in my original post (tapping a launcher tile fires the script but leaves you on the launcher view) is gone for app launches — apps launch directly from the TV view, you stay on the TV view, the D-pad keeps controlling the TV. Much nicer in daily use.

To Chykan_Hunter’s earlier point about needing filter/artwork support — the integration has both. Filtering is via an excluded_sources option (UI or YAML). Artwork comes from Sony’s API directly, so most major apps already display correctly. Worth a look for anyone on Android TV/Bravia.

1 Like
4

Do you get artwork for Disney+ on the remote?