Halo TV: an Android TV launcher built on Aerial

What Halo TV is

Halo TV is a second-development build of Aerial (pengchujin/aerial-tv), organised and released by Null_. The README says it is not Aerial’s author’s work or an upstream release, that it has no affiliation with or endorsement from the upstream author, Apple or any TV maker, and that it is shared for free. It keeps Aerial’s MIT licence and copyright notice, and each release ships its matching source code. The repository was created on October 25, 2026; its first releases were named Aerial Universal, and the Halo TV name starts with 1.58 on October 27.

Halo TV keeps Aerial’s base and follows its updates (2.1.4 merges Aerial 1.85; Aerial itself had reached 1.89 by November 9, so the fixes in Aerial 1.86 to 1.89 are not in Halo TV yet), adding its own home screen design:

• Dock and focus. A liquid-glass dock and sliding focus, with frosted glass still available. New installs show one row of five apps, with only the selected app’s name.
• Clock and status. The clock group sits top left, top right, centre or in the status bar, with adjustable size, weather, text colour, an optional lunar date and optional free memory and storage.
• Wallpapers and screensavers. Static, live and screensaver categories, including a flip-clock screensaver; new installs default to the flip clock after 5 minutes. Videos uploaded from a phone stream to the TV, up to about 2 GB each, limited by free storage.
• Kids and Elders mode. A parental password, chosen apps, and for kids usage time and rest rules, set on the TV or from a phone by QR code.
• Control Center. Wallpaper and screensaver, volume and brightness, performance mode (smooth, balanced or effects first) and a background clean-up.

The project’s screenshot is from the MuMu emulator running 2.0.5, and the README says looks and features vary with resolution, Android version and firmware.

Halo TV and debloating

Halo TV is a launcher, not a debloater: it does not remove or disable system apps. The README asks you to keep the TV’s original launcher and advises against deleting it, turning off system security protections or trying unfamiliar engineering menus. Its only clean-up is Control Center’s background clean, which sends close requests to running apps (the number shown is requests, the memory change is a system-wide estimate) and does not work on Android 14 and newer; it skips VPN apps.

If you want the ad, ACR and telemetry packages themselves disabled over ADB, that is what CleanYourTV’s per-model lists do: see how to use CleanYourTV, the bloatware package list and how to restore. Neither repository documents running the two together.

Which Halo TV APK to download

Standard and Guard share one package name, so a TV gets one or the other. Lite has its own package name, and its features and settings differ from the full app. Installing over an existing copy needs a matching signature. The release also has aerial-universal-2.1.4-standard.apk and aerial-universal-2.1.4-guard.apk, which the README says are identical to the HaloTV files and exist so older installs’ updater can find them, and a SHA256SUMS.txt. The checksums above are the SHA-256 digests GitHub reports for each asset; check a download with shasum -a 256 (macOS), sha256sum (Linux) or certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256 (Windows).

How to install Halo TV

1. Pick the build. Check the TV’s Android version and how locked its firmware is; the README suggests trying Standard first.
2. Install the APK. Either copy it to a USB drive and open it on the TV, or install it over ADB from a computer on the same network, then confirm the prompt on the TV.
3. Make it the home screen. With Standard, choose Halo TV as the default home in the system. With Guard, follow the app’s guide and turn on the guard permissions it asks for, which the README stresses are your choice.

Keep the original launcher installed. Over ADB the install is the usual one, with your TV’s IP address and USB debugging turned on in Developer options:

adb connect 192.168.1.20:5555
adb install -r HaloTV-2.1.4-standard.apk

Android 11 and newer TVs that offer only Wireless debugging need to pair first (adb pair with the code on the TV); see Step 1 of the Aerial guide for brand-specific ways to turn on ADB, and our CleanYourTV guide for setting up ADB on a computer. The repository’s INSTALL.md covers USB, ADB and AI-assisted installs and where common brands hide the ADB switch.

How to undo Halo TV

To switch back, choose the original home as the default in the TV’s system settings and, if you used Guard, turn off the related service under Accessibility. Then uninstall Halo TV from the TV’s app settings if you no longer want it. Because nothing was removed, the stock home is still there.

Which TVs Halo TV runs on

• Android 5.0 and newer: Standard or Guard. Android 4.0–4.4: Lite, with compatibility depending on the device.
• Tested: the README says 2.0 was tested on a TCL Q10G Pro; the 2.1.4 changes have not yet had a regression run on a physical TV, and Lite has not been verified on a real Android 4.x set. Aerial’s model notes are a reference only, not proof that Halo TV has been checked on each model.
• Firmware limits: makers’ firmware can block third-party home screens, the guard and screensavers.
• Not supported: Samsung Tizen, LG webOS and non-Android VIDAA cannot install Android APKs (see Samsung, LG and Roku).

Recent Halo TV versions

Halo TV published 22 releases between October 25 and November 6, 2026; see the release list. The repository’s RELEASE_NOTES.md lists changes and known limits.

Halo TV vs Aerial

Both are MIT-licensed launchers on the same code base and both come as standard, guard and Lite builds. Aerial is the upstream project by pengchujin, made for China-market Xiaomi and TCL TVs, with Home Guard, aerial films and a long list of reported models; Halo TV is a separate build by Null_ that adds its own dock, clock, wallpaper and Kids and Elders design on top and merges Aerial’s updates after they ship (Halo TV 2.1.4 is based on Aerial 1.85). Read the Aerial guide for the upstream install script, model table and known issues, and all alternatives for the wider picture.

Hardware that helps

Halo TV is set up and undone with the TV remote and its settings. A spare input device helps while you do that.

• A keyboard with a touchpad. The Rii i8+ mini keyboard with touchpad uses its own 2.4 GHz USB receiver, so it needs no pairing and keeps working if the TV’s Bluetooth remote drops after a change. It makes Developer options, Wi-Fi passwords and long app lists quicker, and gives you a way back to Settings while you undo something.

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Halo TV questions