How to Automatically Launch Art Mode on Hisense Canvas TV Using Home Assistant

If you own a Hisense Canvas TV, you’ve probably noticed an annoying behavior: after watching YouTube, Netflix, or casting content to your TV, leaving it idle often activates the Google TV screensaver instead of the built-in Hisense Art Mode.

The Canvas TV is designed to display artwork when you’re not watching anything, but Google TV’s default screensaver can interfere with that experience.

Fortunately, I found a simple workaround using Home Assistant. It automatically switches the TV into Art Mode whenever Google’s screensaver starts, without requiring ADB commands, custom integrations, or complicated scripts.

The Problem: Google TV Screensaver Instead of Art Mode

The Hisense Canvas TV has a built-in Art Mode that allows it to display artwork like a framed painting.

However, when using apps such as:

YouTube
Netflix
Google Cast
Other streaming apps

The TV may eventually enter Google’s screensaver rather than the native Hisense Art Mode.

Manually entering Art Mode works, but having to do this every time defeats the purpose of an automatic art display.

The Solution: Detect Google’s Screensaver and Turn Off the TV Through Home Assistant

The trick is surprisingly simple.

When the Google TV screensaver activates, Home Assistant can detect a change in the TV’s app_id attribute.

The Google TV screensaver uses this app ID:

com.google.android.apps.tv.dreamx

We can configure Home Assistant to monitor for this specific value.

Once detected, Home Assistant sends a media_player.turn_off command to the TV.

On my Hisense Canvas TV, this command activates Art Mode instead of completely turning off the display.

This makes it possible to automatically switch from Google’s screensaver into Hisense Art Mode.

Step 1: Connect Your Hisense Canvas TV to Home Assistant

First, make sure your Hisense Canvas TV is connected to Home Assistant and appears as a media player entity.

For example, my TV uses:

media_player.living_room_tv

You can find your entity ID by navigating to:

Home Assistant → Developer Tools → States

Search for your TV and confirm that its attributes include app_id.

Your entity ID may be different depending on your Home Assistant setup.

Step 2: Create a New Automation

Navigate to:

Settings → Automations & Scenes → Create Automation

Create a new automation and switch to the YAML editor.

Paste the following configuration:

alias: Hisense Canvas TV - Automatically Start Art Mode
description: >
  Automatically enter Hisense Art Mode when
  the Google TV screensaver starts.
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id:
      - media_player.living_room_tv
    attribute: app_id
    to: com.google.android.apps.tv.dreamx
    for:
      seconds: 5

conditions: []

actions:
  - action: media_player.turn_off
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.living_room_tv

mode: single

Important: Replace media_player.living_room_tv with your own TV’s entity ID in both the trigger and action sections.

Save the automation and make sure it’s enabled.

Step 3: How the Automation Works

Here’s what happens behind the scenes:

You finish watching YouTube, Netflix, or another streaming service.
You leave the TV idle.
Google TV eventually activates its built-in screensaver.
Home Assistant detects that the TV’s app_id changes to com.google.android.apps.tv.dreamx.
After five seconds, Home Assistant sends a media_player.turn_off command.
Instead of shutting down completely, the Hisense Canvas TV enters its built-in Art Mode.

That’s it! The transition happens automatically without having to touch the remote.

The five-second delay is optional. I included it to make sure the screensaver has actually started before triggering the action.

Why Not Just Launch the Hisense Art Mode App Directly?

Initially, I tried launching the Hisense Art Mode app through Home Assistant using its Android package ID:

com.vt.arttv.artmode

For example:

action: media_player.play_media
target:
  entity_id: media_player.living_room_tv
data:
  media:
    media_content_id: com.vt.arttv.artmode
    media_content_type: app

Unfortunately, this approach did not work on my TV.

The workaround is to use the TV’s existing behavior instead: when Home Assistant sends the turn_off command, my Hisense Canvas TV switches to its built-in Art Mode.

This avoids having to launch the Art Mode app directly, which in my experience was unreliable.

Final Thoughts

This simple Home Assistant automation solved one of my biggest frustrations with the Hisense Canvas TV.

Rather than having Google’s default screensaver appear after watching YouTube, Netflix, or casting content, the TV now automatically switches into its built-in Art Mode.

The best part is that it requires only one trigger and one action:

Trigger: Google TV screensaver starts (com.google.android.apps.tv.dreamx).
Action: Send media_player.turn_off, which activates Hisense Art Mode on my TV.

No ADB commands, additional hardware, or complicated scripts required.

If you have a Hisense Canvas TV integrated with Home Assistant, this is an easy workaround worth trying.

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