![\"Roku](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Roku-old.jpg\")
\u00a9Roku \/ Kotaku <\/p>\nAbout two weeks ago or so, I booted up the Roku TV in our living room and flopped onto the couch. But to my surprise, the TV featured a tutorial-like screen letting me know that Roku had pushed out a big update to the home screen and UI. I hated it; however, I figured that after a few days I\u2019d get used to it. Nope. I still hate the new design. And a lot of other Roku users are fed up with one of the best smart TV UIs around getting filled up with ads and algo-powered slots while also seemingly introducing new, terrible bugs.<\/p>\n
Before the update last month, the Roku home screen was a fairly simple, no-frills experience. You had your apps and inputs, which you could manually organize how you wanted; some sections labeled clearly on the left; and three boxes at the top which would show \u201crecommended\u201d programs or movies. It was snappy, easy to use, simple to tweak, and efficient.<\/p>\n
\u00a9Roku \/ Kotaku <\/p>\n
But the old design also wasn\u2019t filled with tons of bullshit algorithm-powered slots and ads. And because companies are desperate to make more money at all costs, the worst phenomenon in the tech world happened as Roku\u2019s home screen suffered a nasty case of enshittification.\u00a0 The old layout, fast and clean, was killed without warning and replaced without choice in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now my Roku home screen is a jumbled mess that looks different every day I boot it up. Annoyingly, my various HDMI inputs are no longer pinned to the top like before<\/a> and instead exist in a weird area labeled \u201cQuick Access,\u201d which is annoying and not as easy to customize. There\u2019s also a bunch of new areas on the home screen controlled completely by Roku, which are just more places for them to push content and make money. I really don\u2019t need my TV to recommend five different TV shows from services I don\u2019t even subscribe to or use. Nobody wants that.<\/p>\n Some users have figured out ways to make the home screen look more like the old version<\/a> and shared the steps. But the end result isn\u2019t quite the same, and in some cases people have reported that removed sections and features can return, like a \u201cSoccer Zone\u201d that seems to be forced on Roku users during the World Cup no matter how many times people delete it.<\/p>\n As the update rolled out over the last few weeks, more people have booted up their TV and discovered the new, cluttered, hard-to-use mess, and many are not happy. Many want the old home screen back and don\u2019t understand why it was even changed in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cThe new Roku update is terrible. Lost my settings on the Home Screen, cannot change the position of apps,\u201d complained one user on Reddit.<\/p>\n \u201cDoes anyone actually like this new Roku home screen layout?\u201d asked one user on Twitter. \u201cIt\u2019s dogshit and clearly they ripped out custom setup to try and force more ads on you. Shame been a supporter from day one, but all good things come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCan you bring back to old [sic] interface as an option for those who don\u2019t want it?\u201d asked a top comment on a video Roku posted about the new update on YouTube.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I see is more ads \u2013 while the Software\/OS keeps getting more laggy as hell!! When will more focus be on speed of all apps and the OS!!??\u201d said another person on YouTube.<\/p>\n If you dig around<\/a>, you\u2019ll also find people<\/a> complaining about all kinds of new bugs<\/a>. One that I\u2019m dealing with a lot is a squished screen that appears anytime I turn on my PS5 or Xbox or switch inputs between them. And the only way to fix this is to unplug the TV and let it boot back up. It seems to have no fix and is so bad that I\u2019m now thinking about buying a new TV for the living room, preferably a non-Roku device.<\/p>\n Of course, the problem is that finding a smart TV in 2026 that isn\u2019t horrible bullshit is becoming tricky. My big, dumb 4K LGTV in my office is still mostly fine, but recently got an update that has literal ads pop up on the bottom when I turn it on or switch inputs. I recently messed around with a Google TV and that seemed worse than the current Roku shitshow, which doesn\u2019t give me hope that I\u2019ll be able to replace my living room set with anything decent.<\/p>\n I know I sound old, but fuck it. I miss dumb TVs. Just some inputs, and I flipped between them. All my devices have YouTube, Netflix, and other such things. I don\u2019t need them built into my TV, too. But even if I bit the bullet and bought a new TV, the cost for any electronic device in 2026 is going up and up and up. I\u2019ve said it before, but I\u2019ll say it again: The future fucking sucks, man. Also: The people of Roku City deserve better.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About two weeks ago or so, I booted up the Roku TV in our living room and flopped…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":926423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[373725,27255,158,173,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-926422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-enshitifcation","tag-roku","tag-technology","tag-tv","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116898005670375157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}