Vizwriting on Android TV, set up for flipping between news channels

The Android TV setup, in seven steps

1. Confirm it runs a TV build of Android

   Open Settings and find the About screen: on Google TV it sits under System, on older Android TV under Device Preferences. Look for Android TV OS in the version details, or the Google TV name on the home screen. A box with a phone-style home screen and a phone version of Android is running the mobile build, and Google Play on it hides most television apps. Such boxes can still be used, but players must be sideloaded and the remote is clumsier, which is better known before you start searching the store.

   Line up a login: terms from $15

2. Check the Google account in Play

   Open Google Play from the apps row and look at the account icon in the corner. The store lets you browse without an account and then stops at Install, which looks like a fault but is not one. On a television several people share, it makes no difference to Vizwriting which Google account installs the player; the login you type into the player is what counts.

3. Install TiviMate, IPTV Smarters Pro, or both

   Search Google Play for TiviMate IPTV Player and for IPTV Smarters Pro. TiviMate suits a screen that will mostly carry the news: its guide fills the display like a cable grid, and moving between channels is quick. IPTV Smarters Pro suits a screen that will also play from the on-demand library, because an Xtream login gives it separate Live TV, Movies and Series sections. If either listing is missing from your country’s store, install the other; the login does not change.

4. Enter the login

   TiviMate starts from Add playlist; pick Xtream Codes there and fill in the server URL, username and password from WhatsApp; the app then shows a short summary of what it found before you confirm. For IPTV Smarters Pro the button is Login with Xtream Codes API; name the profile anything and fill in the same three fields. Either way, the server needs http:// at the front and the port at the end, and the first load of channels and guide data takes a minute or two.

5. Teach the remote how you watch the news

   Before the first evening, open the player’s settings and look for its controls or playback section. TiviMate’s settings include options for how the up and down keys and the channel buttons behave while a channel plays, so you can make one press move from BBC News to Al Jazeera and another press bring you back. On televisions whose remotes carry channel up and down, many players treat those keys as channel steps. Test them once now rather than during a breaking story.

6. Put the news and factual groups first

   A full Vizwriting list arrives in many groups, by country and by genre. In TiviMate Premium you can hide the groups you will never open and reorder the rest, so the news and the documentary groups sit at the top; the free version shows them in the order they arrive. In IPTV Smarters Pro, the category screen has a search field, and typing news narrows it to the groups that carry the word. Then mark the channels you check every day as favorites, where your player offers it.

7. Finish with three switches and a press of Home

   Play a news channel, step to a second and a third with the remote, then go back to the first. On a wired or strong Wi-Fi connection each switch should settle within a couple of seconds. Then press Home while a channel plays. If your player and device support picture-in-picture, the picture shrinks into a corner instead of stopping, which keeps a bulletin running while you check something else on the television. If it simply stops, the player does not use that feature.

Once it plays: where the factual side lives

With the player signed in, the rest is finding things. Live channels arrive in groups, and the on-demand library keeps non-fiction on shelves of its own; the Vizwriting documentaries and news channels page explains how both are arranged. What airs next on most channels, the 9 p.m. bulletin included, is in the Vizwriting program guide. A bulletin that aired an hour ago can often be replayed through catch-up, on the channels that carry it.

Android TV faults, by what the screen shows

Google Play says the app is not compatible with this device

The box is either running the phone build of Android or was never certified for Google’s television store. Check the About screen again. On such boxes a player can still be sideloaded with Downloader, the same tool used on Fire OS sticks, but install only from the developer’s own address or the one support sends in your chat.

TiviMate asks for Premium when you hold select on a channel

A long press opens the options for favorites and groups, which in TiviMate are Premium features. A short press plays the channel as normal. If favorites matter to you, Premium is bought from TiviMate’s developer inside the app; it is separate from Vizwriting and not included in any plan.

The guide grid goes empty after the first hour

Program data downloads after the channel list and is much larger, so on the first night it fills in stages. Open the player’s settings, find the guide or EPG section and run an update. Channels that still show no entries after that carry no schedule data; they play normally, and only the listing of what comes next is missing.

The channel button on the remote does nothing

Some televisions send the channel keys to their own tuner instead of to apps, and some players ignore those keys. Use up and down on the directional pad inside the player, or look in the player’s control settings for a channel-key option. Universal remotes and soundbar remotes working through HDMI-CEC behave differently again, so test with the television’s own remote.

The sound runs behind the picture on one news channel

If it happens on one channel, it is usually that feed: switch away and back, which resynchronizes most players. If every channel drifts, try the player’s other decoder setting, hardware or software, and check the device’s audio output setting, because passing sound through to a soundbar can add a delay that the plain stereo setting does not.

The box freezes after an hour of rolling news

Inexpensive boxes overheat, especially when tucked behind a television with no airflow. Move the box somewhere it can breathe, keep its software up to date and quit anything running behind the player. Repeated freezes mean the box itself is the weak link, and a certified Google TV device is an inexpensive replacement.

Nothing above matches? A photo of the screen sent on WhatsApp usually settles it faster than a description, and the Vizwriting not-working page covers faults that are not tied to one device.

Read next: the players for Android TV

Prepared by Vizwriting Team · Updated September 5, 2026