Vizio incorporation is an American publicly traded company that sells and designs its televisions and soundbars. The number of people owning Vizio smart TVs is much as the company generated a revenue of $2.04 billion in 2020 but not everyone knows how to install, uninstall and update the Vizio smart TV. Hence today’s article is geared towards teaching you how to install, uninstall, and update apps on your Vizio smart TV.
Some popular smart TV brands like Vizio usually provide an app store that lets users easily install, uninstall and even update apps and other smart TV brands may just provide you with pre-selected apps that you cannot change. Before now if you own a Vizio smart TV, you’d be able to easily install, uninstall and add apps but seemed to have stopped this in 2016 and introduced a new approach to perform the aforementioned tasks with the launch of their SmartCast platform.
But not to bother, as today’s guide will guide you through this new approach, and by the end of the guide, you’d know how to install, uninstall and update apps on your Vizio smart TV.
How to Install, Uninstall and Update Apps on Your Smart TV
Like I had earlier stated, with the introduction of the SmartCast platform the pattern to Installing, uninstalling, and updating apps changed. Before you’d be able to perform any of the actions that were mentioned, there are certain requirements to be met before you can proceed.
Requirements:
- Before you can proceed, first and foremost, you have to ensure that your Vizio smart TV is connected to a stable source of internet.
- Identify the Vizio platform you own. The platform your smart TV runs on tells your TV how to operate, what to show on screen, and how to interact with it as different platforms behave differently. The model number and the year the product was released determines the specific platform your Vizio TV is running on.
From the above requirements, you’d realize that there are different platforms with which the Vizio smart TV’s run on and they are:
- Vizio Internet Apps running on the Via platform. This platform can be found in Vizio smart TVs released between 2009 and 2013.
- Vizio Internet Apps Plus running on the Via platform. Vizio TVs released between 2013 and 2017 operates under this platform and it’s an upgrade of the previous platform.
- SmartCast with No Apps. The platform is found in Vizio HD TVs released between 2016 and 2017.
- Smartcast with Apps. This platform comes with built-in apps and is found on all Vizio smart TVs released in 2018.
If your Vizio smart TV released year falls into any of the above years listed above then, by the end of today’s guide you should be able to install, uninstall and update apps on your Vizio smart TV.
How to install, Uninstall and Update Apps on Vizio Internet Apps
Vizio smart TVs running on this platform have their apps displayed at the bottom of the screen. With this platform, you can gain access to a connected TV store where you can install lots of apps from and also uninstall from (apps you no longer use or apps that take up a lot of space). Since apps running on this platform are frequently monitored by the developers to be able to update them all you have to do is keep your smart TV connected to the internet and the apps that need updating will be automatically updated. With that been said all that’s left would be how to install and uninstall apps on this platform.
How to Install Apps on Vizio Internet Apps
To be able to install apps on this platform, kindly follow the steps outlined below:
- Turn on your Vizio smart TV.
- Press on the Via button (the button with an inscription of an arrowhead facing downwards) on your remote control.
- Select the Connected TV Store from the dock located at the bottom of the screen.
- You can find apps to install from any of these categories: All Apps, Latest, Featured or Categories.
- After picking a particular category, browse through the list of apps on that category and select the app you want to install.
- After selecting the app, the next step is to select Install App.
- Finally, after downloading, the app will be added to the dock at the bottom of them.
If you followed the steps written above correctly you shouldn’t have any problem with installing apps on this platform.
How to Uninstall Apps on Vizio Internet Apps
To be able to uninstall apps on your Vizio smart TVs running on this platform, kindly follow the steps outlined below:
- Turn on your Vizio smart TV.
- Press the Via button on the remote control.
- Highlight the app you want to uninstall from the dock located at the bottom of the screen.
- Press the yellow button on your remote control.
- Select Delete App from the menu that’ll pop up.
- A window will appear requesting that confirm your choice. Select Yes, Delete to confirm your choice and the app will be uninstalled from the smart TV.
With the above steps, you should easily be able to delete apps from Vizio smart TV running on the Internet Apps platform. Please note that you won’t be able to delete all apps from the Smart TV because some apps are binding to the smart TV due to contract and design.
If you follow the steps listed above correctly, then you have learned how to install, uninstall and update apps on your Vizio smart TV running on the internet apps platform.
How to Install, Uninstall and Update Apps on Vizio Internet Apps Plus
Vizio smart TVs running on this platform also have their apps displayed on a dock located at the bottom of the screen. Just like its predecessor, it also has an app store where lots of apps can be downloaded from. But unlike its predecessor, it is called Smart TV App Store rather than the Connected TV Store. Also, the apps are maintained by their developers, so the update is usually automatic once it is connected to the internet. All that’s left now, would be how to install and uninstall apps on this platform.
How to Install Apps on Vizio Internet Apps Plus
To be able to install apps on this platform, follow the steps outlined below:
- Turn on your smart TV.
- Press the Via button on your remote control twice.
- From the fullscreen, Via plus app window, you can view your installed apps under the My Apps tab.
- You can now browse through the Featured, Latest, All apps and Categories to find an app you’d want to install.
- Once you find an app you’d like to install, highlight the app and hold the OK button on the remote control.
- Afterward, you should get a confirmation message telling you that the app has been added to your My Apps list.
Once you follow the procedure as you should, you wouldn’t have any problem installing apps running on this platform.
How to Uninstall Apps on Vizio Internet Apps Plus
To be able to uninstall apps running on the Vizio Internet Apps Plus, follow the steps outlined below:
- Turn on your smart TV.
- Press on the Via button on your remote control.
- From the fullscreen Via plus app window, go to your installed apps under the My Apps tab.
- Highlight the app you want to uninstall and hold the OK button on your remote.
- Press OK this time around to uninstall the app.
- Confirm your wish to delete the app from the confirmation window that comes up.
If you followed the steps listed above correctly you should have learned how to install, uninstall and update apps on your Vizio smart TV running on Internet Apps Plus.
If for any reason you noticed that your apps are not automatically updated on either the Internet Apps or the Internet Apps Plus platform then the way forward would be to simply uninstall and reinstall the app again using the procedures outlined above and the reinstalled app will carry the updated version.
How to Install, Uninstall and Update Apps on Vizio Smartcast
The Vizio SmartCast is simply a version of Chromecast. For Vizio smart TVs that support this platform, you will not be able to install apps directly on the smart TV. This is so because the smart TVs running on this platform come with pre-installed apps that you can find at the bottom of the screen.
Asides from the pre-installed apps, you are not granted permission to either install newer apps or uninstall old apps. This problem can be solved if you possess a Chromecast-enabled phone, tablet, or computer as well as Apple devices via AirPlay. You can easily cast contents from the screen of the enabled devices onto your smart TV’s and enjoy the apps as you would normally do.
Also with the Vizio smart TV running on the Vizio Smartcast platform, you wouldn’t have to update your pre-installed apps manually as they are done automatically (changes are made on the server and it reflects on the screen) by the different companies that partnered with Vizio to have their apps displayed on the screen.
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Although, there are a small number of Vizio smart TVs running on the Smartcast platform that does not have any pre-installed app but only supports casting from Chromecast enabled phones, tablets, or computer and Airplay from Apple devices.
At this point, we have arrived at the end of the guide today and you should have gained knowledge on how to install, uninstall and update apps on your Vizio smart TV.