Vibe coders are building apps to strip ads and trackers from smart TVs
Your smart TV is a surveillance device that also plays Netflix. A growing number of developers have decided to do something about it, and AI-assisted coding is making it easier than ever to ship a working fix.
The Tool: dumbtv
The project getting the most attention is dumbtv, hosted on GitHub. It removes ads, telemetry, experiments, and Alexa from smart TVs. Users can also strip out any additional apps they choose. The tool targets a broad range of smart TV hardware, not just one brand or platform.
How It’s Getting Built
Developers are using AI tools, including Claude, to vibe code these debloating apps without deep prior experience in smart TV internals. The pattern is catching on: write a prompt, iterate on the output, ship something that works. Android TV and Google TV users are among those finding compatible solutions.
The Operator Angle
This is a consumer story for now, but the underlying pattern matters for anyone building tools. AI-assisted coding is compressing the gap between “I’m annoyed by this” and “I shipped a fix for this.” The smart TV ad-stripping wave is a visible, relatable example of vibe coding producing real, useful software.
If you run a SaaS or build indie tools, watch this space. The same approach that strips Alexa off a Hisense is being applied to more complex problems. The barrier to shipping a working app keeps falling.
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