Roku is in the midst of one of the most significant overhauls to its home screen in recent memory, conducting a series of beta tests throughout early 2026 that are reshaping how millions of users interact with their streaming devices in one of the biggest changes Roku has ever made. These major changes are coming to Roku’s home screen.
Here is your first look at Roku’s new home screen:
What’s Actually Changing
The beta introduces two oversized buttons dedicated to Roku’s Live TV Guide and The Roku Channel, dwarfing the standard app icons that populate the rest of the interface. These enlarged elements span multiple rows, effectively serving as visual anchors at the very top of the screen.
Beyond tile sizing and promoted content, another key beta feature involves automatic app rearrangement. This system analyzes user behavior to prioritize frequently accessed apps, pushing them to the top of the home screen for quicker access. The goal is to streamline navigation, but the automation can disrupt established routines, especially for households with multiple users sharing a single device.
Leaked images from a recent Roku user survey also reveal a shift toward a larger “Top Picks for You” section at the top of the interface. Below it, a more streamlined “Quick Access” row displays a limited selection of apps, requiring users to scroll further to reach additional recommended content rows. This marks a stark departure from the existing setup, where users see a grid of their installed apps — Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and others — immediately upon loading the home screen.
Roku’s platform segment, responsible for the majority of its income through video ads and streaming distribution arrangements, achieved an 18 percent year-over-year increase in 2025. The home screen redesign is widely seen as an extension of that momentum, giving the company more prime real estate for sponsored recommendations, programmatic ad placements, and promotional content tied to partner services.
The Live TV Guide serves as a portal for accessing Roku’s catalog of free ad-supported channel programming, while The Roku Channel features free, on-demand access to both original and third-party shows and films. By pushing both services more aggressively, Roku stands to significantly boost the advertising revenue that now drives the bulk of its business.
How to Opt Out — For Now
Users enrolled in the beta can navigate to Settings, then Home Screen, to access opt-out options. For tile sizing, toggles allow switching between standard, medium, or large tiles, or reverting to the default. For auto-arrange, disabling the option within the same submenu restores the home screen to its manual order, preserving any custom arrangements. You can also go to the Settings and then Home Screen to find an option to fully leave the Roku home screen beta test.
What Comes Next
Roku traditionally releases major OS updates in the spring, often incorporating lessons from prior experiments. It remains possible that elements of the Quick Access concept could be integrated into the next update, perhaps with options to toggle recommendation visibility or manually pin apps without surrounding distractions
With Roku operating in more than 100 million streaming households worldwide, the home screen serves as the central hub for millions who rely on it daily. How the company balances the commercial pressures of ad-driven revenue with the user experience that made Roku a household name will likely define the platform’s trajectory through the rest of 2026 and beyond.
Please add Cord Cutters News as a source for your Google News feed HERE. Please follow us on Facebook and X for more news, tips, and reviews. Need cord cutting tech support? Join our Cord Cutting Tech Support Facebook Group for help.