Elevate your Android TV experience with TVOverlay – the ultimate app that turns your TV into an information hub like never before. Whether you're a casual viewer or a tech enthusiast, TVOverlay enhances your TV content by overlaying essential information and giving you complete control over its appearance.
Watch it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdsY084-pr8
Key Features • How To Use • Premium Features • Use cases • Rest API • Issues, suggestions & feature requests
- Clock:
Stay on schedule with our clock feature, and as a premium user, personalize it to match your style. Choose from a variety of colors and text options to make it uniquely yours.
Default clock being displayed at the corner of the screen
- Notifications:
Receive notifications from multiple sources, including your Android phone (with TvOverlay Remote app), REST API, and Home Assistant. TVOverlay offers three default notification layouts – Default, Minimalist, and Icon Only – to suit your preferences. Premium users can even design their own notification layouts for a truly tailored experience.
Sample notifications for Default, Minimalist and Icon Only layouts
- Fixed Notifications:
Keep important information at a glance with fixed notifications. These compact alerts remain visible in the corner of your TV screen for a specified time or until you dismiss them.
Fixed notification examples for: Phone battery ; Light On; Twitch channel online
- Overlay Background:
Control the ambiance with our background layer, which sits between overlay content and your TV content. Could be used to artifically change the TV brightness without dealing with menus. Premium users enjoy additional customization options.
Example of background visibility going to 50%, then 95% and back to 0%
- Control everywhere & Presets for Efficiency:
Manage TvOverlay effortlessly using its companion app, TvOverlay Remote. Alternatively, control it via Rest API or MQTT, making it compatible with Home Assistant and your smart home ecosystem. Save time and effort with Presets, to apply multiple settings at once and streamline your experience.
TvOverlay being controlled by TvOverlay remote (left) and Home Assistant via MQTT (Right)
On TvOverlay Remote, users can have access to Premium features by purchasing a one-time In-app product. This purchase unlocks:
- Multiple devices: be able to control multiple TvOverlay devices on the same remote app
- Customization: personalize Notifications, Clock & Background. Change colors, font styles and more
- Presets: create new presets to apply multiple settings at once
- Helps the developer to continue working on this project :)
Clock & background customization (Left) and Notification customization (middle and right)
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Install TvOverlay on your AndroidTv via PlayStore
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Run TvOverlay and finish all setup steps:
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Draw over other apps permission: Permission required to create an overlay. Depending on the Android version and manufacturer this option may not be available on a system setting menu. In this case, you will have to enable it via ADB command. After enabling ADB on your AndroidTV, you can send the command using TvOverlay Remote or any other app or computer software that sends ADB commands. The ADB command is:
adb shell appops set com.tabdeveloper.tvoverlay SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW allow
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Battery optmization: This step is optional, but recommended to avoid the app being killed by the system. If you cannot access the system option to disable battery optimizationn, you may have to enable it via ADB command. After enabling ADB on your AndroidTV, you can send the command using TvOverlay Remote or any other app or computer software that sends ADB commands. The ADB command is:
adb shell dumpsys deviceidle whitelist +com.tabdeveloper.tvoverlay
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(optional) Install TvOverlay Remote on an android device via PlayStore
- Make sure that you both devices are on the same network and connect it by scanning the QR code on TvOverlay main screen, or connect mannualy by input its host and IP.
- (Optional) On Notification, you can give permission to mirror your device notifications to TvOverlay.
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(optional) Connect to MQTT server
- If you have a MQTT server running, you can connect your TvOverlay device to it to control its main functions. On the TvOverlay or TvOverlay Remote app, find the MQTT option and fill your server information.
- On TvOverlay app MQTT settings you can enable Display status on change to better debug if you have problems.
- If you are using MQTT on Home Assistant, a new device will be created on connection. By default, it will be named TvOverlay - [Device Model]
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(optional) Connect to Home Assistant
- Follow the samples on the Home Assistant section to be able to send Notifications, Fixed Notifications and manage all the settings.
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(optional) Import Postman Collection
- For better understanding of the Rest API, you can import Postman a collection of samples in the Postman section
- Be sure to modify the Variables to the correct host and port.
| Description | Plataform | Image | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notification on person arrive | Home Assistant |  |
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| Notification with image when a motion is detect in a camera | Home Assistant |  |
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| Fixed notification for phone battery | Home Assistant |  |
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| Fixed notification indicating light on | Home Assistant |  |
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| Fixed notification indicating twitch channel online | Home Assistant |  |
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| Fixed notification indicating weather | Home Assistant |  |
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| Darker screen after sunset; reseting after sunrising | Home Assistant with MQTT | |
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To send a notification, POST on {{host}}:{{ip}}/notify a notification json object.
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| id | A unique identifier for the notification. Can be used to edit a notification while in queue or being displayed. | string | [random] | ✓ |
| title | The main text of the notification. | string | null | ✓ |
| message | The secondary text of the notification. | string | null | ✓ |
| source | Extra info text for the notification. | string | null | ✓ |
| image | The image to display in the notification. Can be an MDI icon, image URL, or Bitmap encoded to Base64. | string | null | ✓ |
| video | The video URL to display in the notification. Supports RTSP, HLS, DASH, and SmoothStreaming. (since 1.0.2) | string | null | ✓ |
| largeIcon | The large icon to display in the notification. Can be an MDI icon, image URL, or Bitmap encoded to Base64. | string | null | ✓ |
| smallIcon | The small icon to display in the notification. Can be an MDI icon, image URL, or Bitmap encoded to Base64. | string | null | ✓ |
| smallIconColor | The color tint for the smallIcon. Accepts 6 or 8 digit color hex. The '#' is optional. | string | null | ✓ |
| corner | The position of the notification on the screen. Can be bottom_start, bottom_end, top_start, or top_end. |
string | null (uses hot corner setting) | ✓ |
| duration | The duration that the notification will stay visible in seconds. | integer | null (uses duration setting) | ✓ |
To add a fixed notification, POST on {{host}}:{{ip}}/notify_fixed a fixed notification json object.
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| id | A unique identifier for the fixed notification. Can be used to edit or remove the notification. | string | [random] | ✓ |
| visible | Whether the fixed notification is visible. | boolean | true | ✓ |
| icon | The icon to display in the fixed notification. Can be an MDI icon, image URL, or Bitmap encoded to Base64. | string | null | ✓ |
| message | The text to display in the fixed notification. | string | null | ✓ |
| messageColor | The color of the text in the fixed notification. | string | #FFFFFF | ✓ |
| iconColor | The color tint for the icon in the fixed notification. | string | null | ✓ |
| borderColor | The color of the border around the fixed notification. | string | #FFFFFF | ✓ |
| backgroundColor | The background color of the fixed notification. | string | #66000000 | ✓ |
| shape | The shape of the fixed notification frame. Can be circle, rounded, or rectangular. |
string | rounded | ✓ |
| expiration | The time when the fixed notification will be removed. Valid formats: 1695693410 (Epoch time), 1y2w3d4h5m6s (duration format) or 123 (for seconds) |
string or integer | null | ✓ |
To modify the overlay, POST on {{host}}:{{ip}}/set/overlay an overlay json object.
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| clockOverlayVisibility | How visible the clock is | integer (0~95) | null | ✓ |
| overlayVisibility | How visible the overlay background is | integer (0~95) | null | ✓ |
| hotCorner | position on the screen. accept values: bottom_start, bottom_end, top_start, top_end |
string | null | ✓ |
To change notifications settings, POST on {{host}}:{{ip}}/set/notifications a notification settings json object.
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| displayNotifications | Whether notifications are displayed. | boolean | null | ✓ |
| displayFixedNotifications | Whether fixed notifications are displayed. | boolean | null | ✓ |
| notificationLayoutName | The name of the notification layout to use. | string | null | ✓ |
| notificationDuration | The duration in seconds that notifications are displayed. | integer | null | ✓ |
| fixedNotificationsVisibility | The visibility of fixed notifications, from 0 to 95. A value of -1 makes fixed notifications have the same visibility as the clock. | integer (-1~95) | null | ✓ |
To change settings, POST on {{host}}:{{ip}}/set/settings a settings json object.
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| deviceName | The name of the TV device. | string | null | ✓ |
| remotePort | The port of the TV device. | string | null | ✓ |
| displayDebug | Whether to display debug information on the overlay. | boolean | null | ✓ |
| pixelShift | Whether to move the overlay every 2 minutes to avoid screen burn-in. | boolean | null | ✓ |
To change MQTT settings, POST on {{host}}:{{ip}}/set/mqtt a MQTT settings json object.
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| displayMqttStatusChange | Whether to display a message when MQTT connects or disconnects. | boolean | null | ✓ |
| mqttConfig | Set or replace MQTT config and try to connect. | object | null | ✓ |
| mqttConfig.broker | The URL of the MQTT broker. | string | N/A | ✗ |
| mqttConfig.port | The port of the MQTT broker. | integer | N/A | ✗ |
| mqttConfig.user | The username for the MQTT broker. | string | null | ✓ |
| mqttConfig.password | The password for the MQTT broker. | string | null | ✓ |
For Issues, suggestions & feature requests, create a Issue.