Castaway TV

What you get

It ships empty. That is the design.

There are no channels in this app. No catalogue, no library, no account with anyone, and no server of ours behind any of it.

You add a playlist link or a provider login, and you add the add-ons you already use. Castaway TV is the part that makes them feel like one thing.

Two add-ons come pre-installed and both are metadata only. Cinemeta supplies titles, posters and episode lists. OpenSubtitles supplies subtitles. Neither one resolves a stream. Nothing else is ever bundled.

A paid tier unlocks features in the app. It does not include, and does not provide access to, any channels, streams or media of any kind.

The merge

Live TV on one side. Everything else on the other.

Two apps do these two jobs today, and they do not talk to each other. Two search boxes, two watch histories, two remotes' worth of context switching. Castaway TV is one shell over both.

Live

The channel half

M3U and Xtream Codes. Merge as many playlists as you like into one channel list.
A seven day guide grid on an indexed range query, so it scrolls instead of stuttering.
Sub second zapping. One player instance stays alive across channel changes instead of being rebuilt.
Favourites, groups, hidden categories and a parental PIN. Catch up where the provider supports it.
Multiview. Up to four channels on screen at once.

On demand

The catalogue half

Any Stremio add-on. Paste a manifest link on the TV, or send it from your phone.
Catalogs, details pages, seasons and episodes.
Every source your add-ons return, sorted by quality then size, with the add-on named on each card.
Subtitles from the file or from an add-on, switched mid film without a reload.
Continue watching that mixes a half finished film with the match you tuned away from.

Live TV with the channel browser open: a column of channel groups on the left, the channel list beside it, and the picture still playing on the right.

Groups on the left, channels beside them, the picture never stops. Chrome over live video sits flush to the edge and stays translucent, so you can still see what you are watching.

On demand

Press OK, and it goes.

A title page opens with the backdrop, the cast and one Play button that takes the best ranked source. View sources opens the full list when you would rather choose yourself: filter by add-on, read the quality and the size, pick one.

Nothing is resolved on the device and nothing is downloaded. The add-on hands back a direct link and the player plays it. There is no torrent stack in this app, so an entry without a playable link is dropped before it ever reaches a screen.

A film's details page with Play and View sources buttons, the synopsis, the cast, and a More like this row beneath.

One shell

One home screen, not two apps.

Two doors at the top: live, and on demand. Under them, continue watching, then a row built from what this household actually finished, then favourites and your own library. The dashboard makes no network call of its own. It paints, and it is done.

The Castaway TV home screen: a live TV door showing the match currently playing, an on demand door, then Continue Watching and a because-you-watched row.

Search

One box for all of it.

One query hits your channels, the guide and every add-on catalog at once, and the results come back grouped. Type on the remote if you must. Scan the code and type on your phone if you would rather not.

Search results for a query, split into a Movies row and a TV Shows row of posters.

The rest of it

What the app actually does.

Nothing here is a roadmap item. Every one of these is in the build you would install tonight, and where a feature belongs to Castaway Plus it says so on the card.

Auto-play

Press Play. It picks.

Every add-on you have installed is asked at once. What comes back is ranked by quality, then by size, and the best one that will actually play is the one that starts. You do not have to read a list to watch something.

Free on every tier

A film's backdrop with its title over it, and beneath that the ship on its wave line most of the way to the island, while the add-ons are asked.

Multiview

Four channels, one screen.

Put live channels side by side and keep one of them carrying the audio. Move between tiles with the D-pad; swap what is in a tile without tearing the layout down. Free runs two tiles, Plus runs four.

2 tiles free · 4 with Plus

Four live channels playing at once in a two-by-two grid: football coverage, horse racing, motorsport and basketball, with the audio badge on one tile.

Sources

Or choose it yourself.

View sources opens everything your add-ons returned in one list: quality first, then size, with the add-on named on each card. Filter it, pick a different one, play that instead. Auto-play is a convenience, never a cage.

Free on every tier

Shot pending

The quality and size side of the source picker. A raw sources list is never published.

Household sync

Every TV in the house agrees.

Watch progress, favourites and settings are encrypted on the device before they go anywhere, and what they go into is your own cloud storage. We run no sync server, we never receive the file, and we could not read it if we did. Optional, and off until you turn it on.

Free on every tier

The settings list showing a Sync section: Share with your other TVs, last synced just now, encrypted and only you hold the key, above the back up and restore rows.

Subtitles

Switched mid film, without a reload.

Subtitles come from the file itself or from a subtitle add-on, and changing track or language does not restart anything. OpenSubtitles is pre-installed for search. Set the languages you want once and it stops asking.

Free on every tier

A Subtitles panel open over a playing film, with Off selected and English, Spanish and Portuguese tracks listed under it.

The trial

Fourteen days of the whole thing.

A fresh install runs as Castaway Plus for fourteen days. There is no card to enter, no account to make and no button to find, because it is already on. On day fifteen it steps down to free and keeps working.

Automatic on every install

Shot pending

The Castaway Plus row in Settings, showing the days left on the trial.

Surprise Me

One press, one thing to watch.

Out of ideas? One press picks something the household hasn't seen. Roll again if it misses, mark it seen, or send it straight to the player. It reads what this house has already finished, so it stops offering you the same thing.

Castaway Plus

A single suggested title with its year, running time and synopsis, a poster beside it, and Roll again, Play, Add to Library, Not interested, Seen it and Details buttons.

The full guide

The week, not just now and next.

The week's schedule, not just now and next. Scroll back to catch up on what aired. The grid runs off an indexed range query, so moving through a week of listings scrolls instead of stuttering.

Today free · 7 days with Plus

The guide grid: channels down the left, a half-hour time ruler across the top, programme blocks filling the rows, and the selected programme's still and description above.

Updates

A new build tells you it exists. Once.

The updater checks a version file, notices a newer build, and puts a small marker in the corner of the home screen. Every build publishes a SHA‑256 and the app checks it before it will install one. No identifier of any kind is sent with the check, and updates are not a paid feature: a free household runs the same build as a Founder.

Free on every tier

An Update available sheet over a dimmed home screen, listing the new version number and what changed, with Not now and Install buttons.

Setup

Setup that ends.

Playlists, add-ons, categories and playback in one list, each row saying in plain words what it is for. Hidden categories stay installed and out of the way rather than being deleted, so nothing you hide is ever lost.

Add-ons

Bring your own everything.

Whatever account an add-on needs is configured in that add-on, not here. Castaway TV holds no credentials, no tokens and no accounts of its own. It plays the direct link an add-on returns, or it plays nothing. Send one from your phone by scanning a code, because typing a manifest URL on a D-pad keyboard is slow and everybody knows it.

The add-ons screen with an Add from phone panel and the two pre-installed metadata add-ons listed below it.

Small stuff

Even the waiting was designed.

While your add-ons are being asked, a ship crosses toward an island. When the file is ready the ship anchors and a rowboat carries the last stretch ashore. It is a progress bar.

The loading animation drawn over a film's backdrop: a ship on a drawn wave line, a rowboat behind it, and a small palm island at the far end.

633ms

Cold start to a painted dashboard, measured on a Fire TV Stick against a household running two playlists and eleven add-ons.

9,036

Channels in that household's merged list, across two playlists, with 378 categories hidden out of the way.

SHA‑256

Published with every build, and checked by the app before it will install one. The updater sends no identifier of any kind.

Installing

It is not in any store. That is on purpose.

Thirty six players in this category were pulled from Google Play and the App Store in a single week in March 2026, on one rights holder complaint. A sideloaded app is not exposed to that. The trade is that you install it yourself, and it takes about two minutes.

Allow it

On Fire TV: Settings, My Fire TV, Developer Options, then turn on Apps from Unknown Sources.

Type the code

Install Downloader from the Amazon Appstore, open it, and type 2439353 into the URL box.

Accept

It downloads and offers to install. Say yes, then let it delete the file afterwards. Nothing else to do.

After that, updates arrive in the corner of the home screen. Nothing is silent, and nothing asks twice in one sitting.

Full install guide

Verified on the Fire TV Stick 4K and Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Other Android TV devices running Android 6 or newer may work and are untested. TV and remote only. There is no touch support and no phone app.

Price

It starts free, and the free part stays free.

Whatever is free today stays free. A paid tier gets new capability. It never takes back something that used to be included.

Every fresh install gets fourteen days of full Castaway Plus, automatically. No card, no account, nothing to activate. On day fifteen it steps down to free, and the free tier is a real player, not a nag screen.

Castaway

$0

Free, and free to keep.

The whole on demand half. Unlimited add-ons, catalogs, details pages, search, subtitles, continue watching, and auto-play picking the best source for you.
One live playlist with today's guide, favourites and recents.
Multiview, two channels at once.
Household sync. Encrypted on your device, kept in your own cloud storage, never on a server of ours.
No ads. Not now and not later.

Castaway Plus · household

$14.99 / year

One price for the house. Up to six devices.

Unlimited playlists, merged into a single channel list.
The full seven day guide with descriptions, and catch up.
Multiview, four channels at once.
Autoplay next episode, and Surprise Me.
Source preferences. Quality tier, size caps, audio and keyword filters, under your control instead of on defaults.
Your own channel order, renamed and hidden channels included.
Profiles and the parental PIN.

Founder · $34.99 once, first 500 only.
Everything in Plus, for as long as the app exists. Capped deliberately, so it can never become a promise the app cannot keep.

Any paid subscription or premium upgrade unlocks application features only; it does not include, or provide access to, any channels, streams, or media content.

Line by line
	Free	Plus
Price	$0	$14.99 / year, household
On demand: browse, search, play, auto-pick source, subtitles	Everything	Everything
Autoplay next episode	No	Yes
Surprise Me	No	Yes
Source preferences: quality tier, size caps, audio, keyword filters	Sane defaults	Full control
Live playlists	1	Unlimited, merged
Guide	Today	Full 7 day, and catch up
Multiview	2 tiles	4 tiles
Channel order, renaming, hidden channels	No	Yes
Profiles and parental PIN	No	Yes
Household sync	Yes	Yes
Updates	Every build	Every build
Ads	None	None

You never type a card number on the TV. The app shows a short code and a QR. You pay on your phone, and the TV picks it up on its own. The licence then verifies on the device, so a bad night for our host is never a night you cannot watch television.

It is per household, not per device. Every app in this category that charges per device spends its support hours on device limits. Six devices is a number, not a lock. Install it on the TV in the spare room without asking anyone.

Nothing is on sale yet. Castaway Plus does not have a checkout open. Install it, and the fourteen days start on their own.

Refunds go to the payment provider. Purchases will be sold by Lemon Squeezy as merchant of record, so a charge, a receipt or a refund is theirs to handle. How the app gates a feature is ours.