Yes. Google has retired the Discover tab on the classic Android TV home screen and replaced it with a tab called Free, while the personalized recommendations and the watchlist that used to live under Discover were folded into the Home tab. The change rolled out server side, so it arrived without a system update and without any way to opt out. If you woke up your Nvidia Shield or older Sony or TCL set one day and the tab was gone, nothing is broken on your end.
This guide explains what the Discover tab did, how the classic Android TV home screen differs from the Google TV home screen (the source of most of the confusion), what you should see today, and your practical options if you preferred the old layout.
What the Android TV Discover tab was
The Discover tab arrived with the 2021 redesign of the Android TV home screen. Before that redesign, the home screen was a single scrolling wall of app rows with a Play Next row on top. The redesign added a row of tabs across the top: Home, Discover and Apps. Discover was the content browsing area. It surfaced recommendations across your installed streaming apps, grouped movies and shows by genre, offered a search shortcut, and gave you a Watchlist row where anything you had bookmarked from Google search on your phone or from the TV itself would appear.
In practice, Discover was a lighter version of Google TV content browsing for hardware that would never get the full Google TV interface, and it was the only place on classic Android TV where the cross app watchlist was a first class feature.
Android TV vs Google TV: two different home screens
A lot of the online panic about the tab disappearing comes from mixing up two products that share most of their plumbing. Both run the Android TV operating system underneath. The difference is the launcher, meaning the home screen app that Google ships on top.
| Feature | Classic Android TV home | Google TV home |
|---|---|---|
| Typical devices | Nvidia Shield TV, many Sony, TCL and Hisense sets sold before 2021, older projectors and boxes | Chromecast with Google TV, Google TV Streamer, newer Sony, TCL and Hisense sets |
| Top tabs before the change | Home, Discover, Apps | For You, Live, Movies, Shows, Apps, Library |
| Top tabs today | Home, Free, Apps | Unchanged, Google TV already had a Free tab in many regions |
| Where the watchlist lives | Home tab (was Discover) | Library tab |
| Affected by this change | Yes | No |
If your TV shows a For You tab, you are on Google TV and none of this applies to you. If you see Home, Free and Apps, you are on the classic launcher and the rest of this article is written for you.
What Google changed, and when
The timeline, as reported by Android Authority and others who tracked the rollout, went in three steps.
Step one: code hints in the launcher
In mid 2025, strings inside the Android TV launcher app already referred to the Discover tab as removed, while the tab itself was still visible, which pointed to a staged rollout.
Step two: the on device notice
In September 2025, users began seeing a card on the home screen that read, in short, that recommendations and the watchlist would move to the Home tab. That was the only official communication. Google did not publish a support article announcing the retirement, which is why so many people assumed a bug when the tab vanished.
Step three: the Free tab
By December 2025 the Discover slot had been replaced on older devices, including the Nvidia Shield, by a tab labeled Free. It lists ad supported streaming content: free movies and shows from services such as Tubi, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel where those apps are installed, plus free live channels. Because the swap was server driven, devices running versions as old as Android 10 picked it up with no firmware update.
What you see now, and where the old features went
After the change, the classic Android TV home screen has three tabs.
- Home now carries the Play Next row, your app rows, and further down, the recommendation rows and the Watchlist row that used to sit under Discover. Scroll down past your apps and you will find them.
- Free is the new tab. It only shows content from free services you have installed or that Google can deep link into. If you have no free streaming apps installed, it can look sparse.
- Apps is unchanged.
The watchlist itself was not deleted. It is stored against your Google account, not the device, so anything you saved from Google search on your phone still appears in the Home tab’s Watchlist row and in the Google TV app on your phone. If you cannot find it, scroll further; on a device with a lot of app rows the Watchlist row can be surprisingly far down.
What to do if the tab disappeared and you want the old experience
There is no supported way to restore the Discover tab, and sideloading an older launcher APK will not bring it back because the tab content was served by Google, not built into the app. That said, you have three realistic paths.
Option 1: update and accept the new layout
Make sure the launcher and Google Play services are current so you at least get the finished version of the new layout rather than a half migrated one. On classic Android TV: Settings, then Apps, then See all apps, then Show system apps, then Android TV Home, then Update if one is offered. Or open the Play Store, choose your avatar, then Manage apps and games, and update everything. If the Home tab looks broken after the change, clearing the launcher cache forces it to rebuild its rows, which fixes most leftover Discover artifacts.
Option 2: switch to a third party launcher
Launchers such as Projectivy Launcher, FLauncher and ATV Launcher run on classic Android TV, install from the Play Store or by sideloading, and give you full control over rows, app order and whether any recommendation content appears at all. On a Shield you can set one as default from Settings, then Apps, then Default apps, then Home app. On many Sony and TCL sets the Home button is hardwired to the Google launcher, so you need a small helper app such as a Home button remapper, or you simply open the alternate launcher from the app list and let it stay in the foreground. This is the closest thing to a real fix for people who disliked the Free tab.
Option 3: sideload the Google TV app experience
You cannot install the Google TV launcher on a classic Android TV device; it is signed for specific hardware and will not run. What you can do is manage your watchlist from the Google TV app on your phone, or plug a Google TV streaming device into the same set. If you are replacing hardware anyway, our roundup of the best TVs we have reviewed in 2026 covers which sets ship with Google TV and which use a different platform altogether.
Troubleshooting
The Discover tab is gone but there is no Free tab either
Your device is between stages of the rollout, or it has lost its connection to Google’s recommendation service. Confirm you are signed in (Settings, then Accounts and sign in), reboot the device fully by unplugging it for thirty seconds, and give it a day. If the tab row still shows only Home and Apps after that, clear the cache and data of the Android TV Home app. You will need to sign back into a few things but the layout rebuilds cleanly.
The Watchlist row is missing from Home
The row only renders when the watchlist has at least one item and the device account matches the account you saved to. Add a title from the Google TV app on your phone using the same Google account, then return to the TV and pull down and back up on the Home tab to refresh.
The Free tab shows nothing or only a couple of rows
The Free tab depends on which free services are installed and available in your country. Install Tubi, Pluto TV or another free service, open it once so it registers with the launcher, and the rows populate within an hour or so.
The home screen is stuck showing a Discover placeholder card
The migration notice card sometimes lingers after the tab has already moved. Highlight the card, press and hold select, and choose Dismiss or Remove. If that option does not appear, clearing the launcher cache removes it.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Android TV Discover tab coming back?
No. Google replaced it deliberately with the Free tab and moved the recommendation and watchlist rows to Home. There is no setting to restore it, and the content that filled Discover was served from Google’s side, so an older launcher APK cannot recreate it. Treat the removal as permanent.
Did I lose my watchlist when Discover disappeared?
No. The watchlist is tied to your Google account, not the tab. It now appears as a row on the Home tab of classic Android TV, in the Library tab on Google TV devices, and in the Google TV app on Android and iOS. Scroll down on Home if you do not see it immediately.
Why does my other TV still show For You instead of Home and Free?
That TV is running the Google TV interface, not the classic Android TV launcher. Google TV never had a Discover tab and was not changed. The two home screens look similar but are separate apps with separate features, which is why the same brand can ship both depending on model year.
Can I turn off the Free tab or hide it?
Not within Google’s launcher. The tab order and presence are controlled by Google. If you want a home screen without it, install a third party launcher such as Projectivy or FLauncher and set it as your default home app where the device allows it.
The bottom line
Google killed the Android TV Discover tab on purpose, communicated it with a single on screen card, and replaced it with a Free tab that promotes ad supported content. Your recommendations and watchlist survived the move and now sit on the Home tab. The Google TV interface on newer hardware was never involved.
If the new layout bothers you, the productive path is a third party launcher rather than fighting the update. And if you use the TV as a Google hub in other ways, it is worth knowing that Gemini is where Google’s attention has shifted, which explains why the old recommendation tab was not worth maintaining.
