Google TV Streamer shoved a silly ‘General Interest’ app folder on my home screen

Google TV’s interface is full of rows and icons that get in my way when I simply want to open my local sports streaming app or YouTube or Plex and enjoy my content. However, one piece of the Google TV experience has remained sacred so far — the app icon row. This usually shows me a list of all my installed apps, i.e. the icons I actively chose to put on my TV and organized according to my own use. Well, until today, that is. Because with the new Google TV Streamer, Google has decided to desecrate the app icon row too.

When I first set up my new Streamer, I saw a new folder icon smack in the middle of my apps list called “General interest,” with the French flag in the bottom corner because I live in France. My colleague C. Scott Brown doesn’t have it in the US, so your mileage may vary; Google may only surface it in some specific regions.

Of course, I got curious and checked out this new folder. Inside, I found two shortcuts to download and install two local apps: Canal+ (one of the largest streaming platforms in France) and Arte (a relatively minor local streaming platform).

Now, this seemed relatively innocuous at first. I thought I’d remove Arte’s shortcut because I don’t use that service and then I’d get Canal+ because I do use it. Well, my first discovery was that Arte’s icon is unremovable. I can’t delete it, uninstall it, or do anything with it. I was able to get rid of it for all of 10 seconds by first installing the app and then uninstalling it, but the shortcut came back soon after.

As for Canal+, it was easy to download, thanks to the shortcut. But this is an app I use almost every day to stream La Liga, the Premier League, and the Champions League. I want it on my homescreen. Guess what? It’s stuck inside the “General Interest” folder, and there’s no way to move it to the main app list. I tried everything, from uninstalling, installing, deleting, waiting, etc… nothing works. The moment Canal+ gets installed, its icon gets locked inside that folder.

So here I am, with a silly folder I can’t delete at all, which houses one shortcut to an app I don’t need that I can’t delete, and one icon of an app I use every day but that I can’t move back to the main app list. So, instead of accessing Canal+ immediately as I do with Plex, YouTube, and Prime Video, I have to open the folder first and then launch it. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it drove me insane from the first day.

My temporary solution? I’ve assigned the new favorites icon on the Google TV Streamer remote to Canal+ so I can quickly open it when I want to.

Dear Google, can you please stop pretending you know better than me when it comes to what I want to watch and how I want to organize my apps? The row is called “Your apps” for a reason; I’d like them to remain my apps. Please and thank you.