cleanyourtv/docs/watch-next.md

Reading Continue watching

A launcher can show the rows other apps publish to the system's Continue watching (Watch Next) and preview channels. They live in the TV provider, behind TvContract.WatchNextPrograms and TvContract.PreviewPrograms.

• Permission: android.permission.READ_TV_LISTINGS, a runtime permission. Request it with the normal dialog, or grant it from a shell: pm grant <package> android.permission.READ_TV_LISTINGS.
• Not needed: com.android.providers.tv.permission.ACCESS_ALL_EPG_DATA is signature|privileged, so a sideloaded app cannot hold it. With only READ_TV_LISTINGS a query returns the caller's own rows plus every row marked searchable.
• Query without a selection: a caller without ACCESS_ALL_EPG_DATA gets a SecurityException when it passes one. Read the whole table and filter in code.
• Name the columns: pass the projection you read rather than null. On a Philips TPM191E (Android TV 12) the provider's default projection includes split_id, a column its watch_next_programs table does not have, so a query with a null projection fails with SQLiteException: no such column: split_id.
• Some apps publish nothing. Rows exist only if the app writes them and marks them searchable, and some apps do neither, so query on the target TV before relying on an app. Query from an app that holds READ_TV_LISTINGS, not from the shell: the shell lacks it, so content query --uri content://android.media.tv/watch_next_program (or channel, preview_program) prints No result found. and cannot tell whether any app publishes rows.
• Seen on a Chromecast with Google TV 4K (Google TV 14, UTTC.250917.004): a test build holding READ_TV_LISTINGS and querying without a selection saw 6 channels and 51 preview programs, all from YouTube and Spotify, and no Watch Next rows. Poster URIs were https:// (one Spotify poster aside, android.resource://), so a reader needs network access to show most of them; intent_uri held intent: URIs. Plex (com.plexapp.android 2026.20.0, which requests WRITE_EPG_DATA) had no channel, preview or Watch Next rows visible. Without ACCESS_ALL_EPG_DATA a reader sees only its own rows plus rows marked searchable, so Plex rows that are not searchable would be invisible too: the probe cannot tell "publishes nothing" from "publishes only non-searchable rows".
• Seen on a TCL 75Q7C (G08, Google TV 12, STT2.221228.001 AS36), the same kind of probe: 43 Watch Next rows, from Prime Video (14), HBO Max (com.wbd.stream, 10), Jellyfin (7), Wholphin (6), Moonfin (4) and SkyShowtime (2), plus 339 preview programs (the 60 the probe printed were all SkyShowtime's). Netflix, installed, had no rows visible. Of the Watch Next posters, 32 were https:// (Prime Video, HBO Max, SkyShowtime) and 11 were content:// from the Jellyfin clients' own image providers, which a reader opens without network access. watch_next_type 0, 1 and 2 (continue, next, new) all occurred; Jellyfin's next-episode rows had no last_playback_position_millis. Prime Video's intent_uri opened the app at its profile picker on a cold start.
• Seen on a TCL C6K (Google TV 14, UTT2.250416.001 AU02): the same kind of test build saw 25 Watch Next rows: Crunchyroll 19, Prime Video 3, Netflix 2 and Jellyfin for Android TV 1. All four fill title, season_display_number, episode_display_number, poster_art_uri, intent_uri, watch_next_type, last_engagement_time_utc_millis, last_playback_position_millis and duration_millis; only Crunchyroll and Jellyfin add episode_title. watch_next_type 0 (continue), 1 (next) and 2 (new, from Prime Video) all appeared. Posters were https:// except Jellyfin's content://. Rows linger: the oldest was six months old, and a "continue" row sat at 99% of its episode, so a reader filters by engagement time and progress. YouTube published no Watch Next rows, only preview channels ("Recommended for you", "Trending", "YouTube Music"). Stremio (com.stremio.one) published none either; it keeps a preview channel named "Continue Watching" whose rows carry last_playback_position_millis and duration_millis but no date column at all, so they cannot be sorted or aged by time.
• Seen on a TCL 55C655 (G10, Google TV 12, STT2.230203.001 AS16), the same kind of probe with launcherx still enabled: 34 Watch Next rows, RaiPlay (it.rainet.androidtv) 17, DAZN 10, Prime Video 5 and Netflix 2; Disney+ and Mediaset Infinity, both installed, had none. The newest four were the first four cards of Google TV's own Continue watching row, in the same order, so on this set the stock row comes from the local table. Every poster was https:// (raiplay.it, Netflix's nflxso.net, Amazon's image CDN), and some RaiPlay rows had none. RaiPlay often puts a tagline in title instead of the show's name ("Ogni giorno un nuovo episodio" for one daily series), so a text-only card can be unreadable. The DAZN rows were channels, watch_next_type 2, last engaged 433 days before. Preview programs: DAZN 55, Prime Video 30, TCL channelplus 30, Netflix 16, YouTube 7.
• Seen on a Philips 65PUS7354/12 (TPM191E, Android TV 12, STT2.230526.001): a launcher build holding READ_TV_LISTINGS, querying without a selection, failed on split_id with a null projection (above) and worked once it named the 13 columns it reads. It then saw one Watch Next row, from RTP Play (pt.rtp.play). Plex (com.plexapp.android) had none visible, not even after a title was played part-way and stopped, so on this set a sideloaded launcher's Continue watching row cannot show Plex. Preview programs were not read.
• Seen on a Skyworth SWTV-24AE-FHD sold as Telefunken (beomil, Google TV 14, UKN4.250714.138), with the stock launcher (launcherx) and setupwraith disabled, a test build holding READ_TV_LISTINGS and querying without a selection saw 17 channels and 3 apps' Watch Next rows. Netflix was visible here too: 2 Watch Next rows, both watch_next_type 0 (continue), with https:// posters and https://www.netflix.com/... deep links that opened the title in Netflix. VLC had 1 and the preinstalled TCL browser 30 (type 2, promotions). Preview programs: TCL browser 30, ARTE 25 (3 channels), Prime Video 21, Spotify 20, YouTube 17 (channels "Recommandations personnalisées", "Tendances", "YouTube Music"), VLC 1; Plex had 6 channels and no programs, and France.tv's channel held 18 programs one evening and none the next. Every channel read browsable 0: with the stock launcher off nothing marks a channel for Home, so a reader that only takes browsable channels shows nothing, and one that takes an app's first channel can land on an empty one (ARTE's live channel). The owner judged YouTube's "personalised" row and Spotify's single row (podcast episodes, unchanged over a day) to be generic rather than their accounts' picks; the TV has two YouTube and two Spotify accounts. Posters were https:// apart from two content:// and two android.resource://.

Source: createSqlParams() in packages/providers/TvProvider/src/com/android/providers/tv/TvProvider.java (AOSP) holds the READ_TV_LISTINGS and searchable logic; both permissions are defined in that module's AndroidManifest.xml.