Keen

Keen is a free, open-source Android TV browser built on a simple idea: reuse the browser engine your device already has, instead of shipping yet another 100+ MiB copy of Chromium. On top of the system WebView it layers a remote-first control surface, layered ad- and tracker-blocking, hardware-decoded playback, and open-protocol media streaming — an 18.4 MiB app that makes a cheap, ageing 2 GB TV box genuinely useful again. No bundled engine. No second browser. No bloat.

Open any site on your TV, activate a video or a magnet: link, and Keen strips the junk, grabs the stream, and hands it to the hardware decoder — all from a single Activity driven by a five-button remote.

Why it exists

Android TV boxes ship with a perfectly capable browser engine — the Android System WebView, a Chromium-based component Google maintains and updates at the OS level. Most "TV browser" apps ignore it and bundle their own 100+ MiB copy of Chromium.

Keen doesn't. It wraps the WebView already on your device with three focused layers:

- Control Layer: Control What it adds: D-pad focus, pointer fallback, address bar, favourites, a remote-first home screen

- Blocking Layer: Blocking What it adds: Seven-stage ad, popup, redirect and overlay defence

- Playback Layer: Playback What it adds: Media3 / ExoPlayer with hardware decoders, torrent streaming, subtitle selection, resume

The result: an 18.4 MiB signed APK that boots in under a second on a 2 GB box — a capable modern browser on exactly the kind of cheap, low-memory hardware that usually ends up as e-waste, and without the storage, memory and update burden of a second embedded engine. Reusing the platform's own maintained, auto-updated WebView also means Keen inherits Google's security patches instead of shipping a Chromium fork that quietly rots.

License

© 2026 SirPrizeNZ

GNU Affero General Public License v3.0