Amazon blacklists Launcher Manager app for taking control of Fire TV remote buttons from buzai232's blog

Amazon blacklists Launcher Manager app for taking control of Fire TV remote buttons

It was inevitable, but it looks like Amazon has already blacklisted the Fire TV app, Launcher Manager. The sideload-only app, which was updated earlier this month with the ability to remap the Home and App Shortcut buttons on Fire TV remotes, can no longer be opened on Fire TV devices. Selecting the app displays the message seen above about the app needing to be updated.To get more news about Led light remote, you can visit remotescn.com official website.

If Launcher Manager was installed on a Fire TV device, the app no longer appears in the main grid of apps or in the “Manage Installed Applications” list under the Fire TV settings menu. The only place the app appears anymore in Amazon’s Fire TV interface is under the list of Recently used apps, where it is now listed with a broken app icon. Trying to launch it from the Recently used apps list or any other method, such as a 3rd-party launcher or app list, either results in the update message being shown or nothing happening at all.
The only times I’m aware of Amazon using its ability to blacklist apps is when an app tries to hijack either the Fire TV remote’s home button or the home screen. Those are the two elements of the Fire TV that Amazon seems to require complete control over with no exceptions. Any time in the past when an app or method was released to take control of either of those two elements, Amazon inevitably blacklisted the app, blocked the method used to hijack the element, or both.

The recent update to Launcher Manager received a lot of attention from the Fire TV modding community, particularly from YouTubers demonstrating how to use the app to bypass Amazon’s Fire TV home screen interface. In just a few days, YouTube videos demonstrating the app have already raked in hundreds of thousands of views across multiple channels. The method used by Launcher Manager to detect Fire TV remote button presses, which is to monitor the device log file for certain entries made by Amazon that indicate the button was pressed, is not particularly new. Past Fire TV apps, like FireStarter, used the same method for detecting home button presses. Those apps were blacklisted by Amazon so it’s no surprise that Lanucher Manager received the same unfortunate treatment.

I suspect that Launcher Manager is being blocked by detecting its package name, which is the unique name that identifies each Android app. It is likely that re-releasing the app using a different package wil circumvent Amazon’s blacklist, but that begins a cat-and-mouse game that would likely be pointless. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon is already working on scrubbing its log file from all indications that the home button is being pressed to prevent this type of hijack from being used again.