While most streaming devices display artwork and photos when you’re not using them, Amazon has found a more lucrative use for that screen space.
With “Sponsored Screensavers,” Amazon starts showing full-screen banner ads whenever your Fire TV goes idle. On the new Fire TV Stick 4K that I’m testing, new ads appear every 30 seconds for about 15 minutes before the device goes into sleep mode. (Amazon first announced screensaver ads in 2020, and the company claims nothing has changed lately in how it implements them.)
The Fire TV interface is already heavy on banner ads and self-promotion to begin with, and turning TVs into billboards just adds to the annoyance. But if you’re sufficiently bothered, there are some steps you can take to dial back the Fire TV’s screensaver ads–or even hide them entirely.
Option 1: Turn off Screensavers
Jared Newman / Foundry
The simplest way to avoid Amazon’s Fire TV screensaver ads is to disable screensaver mode entirely:
- Highlight the gear icon on the home screen.
- Select “Display & Sounds.”
- Select “Screensaver.”
- Under “Start Time,” select “Never.”
With screensavers disabled, the Fire TV will stay on for about 15 minutes before switching to sleep mode, and it will not show any full-screen ads. The downside is that you’ll still see the top carousel of promotional content on the home screen before the device enters sleep mode.
Option 2: Set up photo screensavers
Jared Newman / Foundry
Like many other streaming devices, Fire TV devices can display personal photos in screensaver mode. Once you’ve set this up, the Fire TV will only show screensaver ads for a few minutes before switching over to your photo collection:
- Upload some images to Amazon Photos.
- On your Fire TV, highlight the gear icon on the home screen.
- Head to Display & Sounds > Screensaver
- Under “Current Screensaver,” select a photo group or album.
Option 3: Replace Amazon’s screensaver mode
Jared Newman / Foundry
If you have the motivation, you can swap out Amazon’s screensaver modes for a superior third-party alternative. Setting it up requires some extra effort—along with a computer running Windows, MacOS, or Linux—but the payoff is that you’ll bypass Amazon’s screensaver ads entirely.
Start by installing the free Aerial Views Screensaver app from Amazon’s Appstore. You can either install it remotely through Amazon’s website, or directly on your Fire TV by searching for “Aerial Views Screensaver.”
Open the app, and you’ll see several screensaver options. The “Videos” screensavers are stunning, but note that they’ll consume roughly 23GB per hour of data. The app also has options to display images stored on the Fire TV itself, or to stream them over a local network. Use the “Test screensaver settings” option to make sure the screensaver is to your liking.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Now, prepare your Fire TV by enabling ADB Debugging, which allows the device to connect with your computer over Wi-Fi:
- Highlight the gear icon on the Fire TV home screen.
- Head to > My Fire TV > About
- Click the “Fire TV” option (the name will vary by device model) repeatedly until you see a message that says “No need, you are already a developer.”
- Go back to the “My Fire TV” menu, then head to “Developer options.”
- Turn on “ADB Debugging” in this menu.
- Go back to the “My Fire TV” menu, then head to About > Network
- Make a note of what’s written under “IP Address.”
Jared Newman / Foundry
Next, set up your computer to connect with the Fire TV over Wi-Fi:
- On your computer, download Android’s SDK platform tools for your operating system.
- Extract the platform-tools folder on your computer, then open the folder.
- In Windows: Click on the address bar in File Explorer and type “cmd,” then hit enter.
- On a Mac: Right-click “platform-tools” at the bottom of Finder and select “New Terminal at Folder.”
Type “cmd” in the address bar to open a folder in the Command Prompt.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Mac users: An extra step is required here. Enter the following two lines into the terminal, replacing “LOCATION” with the path to the platform-tools folder.
echo ‘export PATH=$PATH:~/Users/LOCATION/platform-tools/’ >> ~/.bash_profile source ~/.bash_profile
Now, type the following into the terminal or command prompt, swapping “IPADDRESS” for the address you noted earlier:
adb connect IPADDRESS
On your Fire TV, you’ll see a permissions prompt. Check off “Always allow from this computer,” then select select “Allow.”
Back on your computer, type the following:
adb shell settings put secure screensaver_components com.neilturner.aerialviews/com.neilturner.aerialviews.ui.screensaver.DreamActivity
Your Command Prompt or Terminal commands should look like this.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Now, wait roughly five minutes to confirm that the new screensaver mode appears.
Note that if you want to return to Amazon’s screensaver options, you’ll need to repeat the connection commands above and enter the following in the terminal or command prompt:
adb shell settings put secure screensaver_components com.amazon.bueller.photos/.daydream.ScreenSaverService
Option 4: Choose a different streaming device
Roku’s venerable Aquatic Life screensaver.
Jared Newman / Foundry
As a last resort, you can always choose a streaming device that doesn’t have ads for screensavers. Some notable options:
- Amazon’s second-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max includes an ad-free screensaver mode, called “Ambient Experience.”
- Roku devices have a wide selection of ad-free screensavers under Settings > Theme > Screensaver. (“Aquatic Life” is still the best.)
- Google TV devices also have an ambient mode with no ads, including the latest HD and 4K Chromecasts and Walmart’s Onn 4K Streaming Box.
- The Apple TV 4K is pricey, but its screensaver mode and interface are refreshingly ad-free.
With so many streaming services stuffing ads into their videos (and raising prices for ad-free viewing), a few extra minutes without any upselling will be well worth the effort.
Check out Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get new streaming TV tips every Friday.
