Installing Web Apps on Samsung Tizen TVs

Posted on:February 25, 2026
· 4 min read

If you’re building web apps for Samsung smart TVs, you’ll need to deploy them to actual hardware at some point. The simulator only gets you so far. Here’s how to install your web app on a physical Tizen TV.

Prerequisites

You’ll need:

Enable Developer Mode on the TV

First, put your TV in developer mode:

  1. Go to Apps on your TV
  2. Press 1-2-3-4-5 on the remote (yes, really)
  3. A dialog appears - toggle Developer Mode to On
  4. Enter your computer’s IP address
  5. Restart the TV

After restart, you’ll see a “Developer Mode” banner at the top of the Apps screen. That’s how you know it worked.

Install Tizen Studio

Grab Tizen Studio from Samsung’s developer site. You need at least:

The CLI tools are what matter most. After installation, add them to your PATH:

export PATH=$PATH:~/tizen-studio/tools:~/tizen-studio/tools/ide/bin

Create a Certificate

Tizen apps need to be signed. For development, create a certificate profile:

tizen certificate -a MyAuthor -p password123 -f mycert
tizen security-profiles add -n MyProfile -a ~/tizen-studio-data/keystore/author/mycert.p12 -p password123

Or use Device Manager in Tizen Studio - it’s more GUI-friendly for certificate management.

Connect to the TV

Find your TV’s IP address (Settings > General > Network > Network Status).

Connect via SDB (Samsung’s ADB equivalent):

sdb connect 192.168.1.100
sdb devices

You should see your TV listed. If not, check:

Build Your Web App

Your app needs a config.xml in the root. Minimal example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<widget xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/widgets" xmlns:tizen="http://tizen.org/ns/widgets" 
        id="http://yourdomain.com/myapp" version="1.0.0">
    <tizen:application id="XXXXXXXXXX.myapp" package="XXXXXXXXXX" required_version="2.3"/>
    <content src="index.html"/>
    <feature name="http://tizen.org/feature/screen.size.normal.1080.1920"/>
    <icon src="icon.png"/>
    <name>My App</name>
    <tizen:privilege name="http://tizen.org/privilege/application.launch"/>
</widget>

The XXXXXXXXXX is your app ID - use something unique (alphanumeric, 10 characters).

Build the package:

tizen build-web -out .buildResult
tizen package -t wgt -s MyProfile -- .buildResult

This creates a .wgt file - that’s your installable app.

Install on the TV

With your TV connected:

tizen install -n myapp.wgt -t 192.168.1.100

The app should appear in the TV’s app list. Launch it:

tizen run -p XXXXXXXXXX.myapp -t 192.168.1.100

Debugging

The killer feature: remote debugging with Chrome DevTools.

sdb -s 192.168.1.100 dlog -v time

Or launch with debugging enabled:

tizen run -p XXXXXXXXXX.myapp -t 192.168.1.100 -w

This prints a debug URL. Open it in Chrome and you get full DevTools - console, network, elements, the lot.

Automating Deployment

For CI/CD, script the whole process:

#!/bin/bash
TV_IP="192.168.1.100"
APP_ID="XXXXXXXXXX.myapp"

tizen build-web -out .buildResult
tizen package -t wgt -s MyProfile -- .buildResult
tizen uninstall -p $APP_ID -t $TV_IP 2>/dev/null
tizen install -n *.wgt -t $TV_IP
tizen run -p $APP_ID -t $TV_IP

Common Issues

“Device not found” - Check SDB connection, try sdb kill-server && sdb start-server

“Signature verification failed” - Certificate issue. Re-create your certificate profile or check the TV has your certificate’s DUID registered (for non-development certs)

App crashes on launch - Check dlog for errors. Usually a missing privilege or malformed config.xml

Black screen - Your index.html might be failing silently. Add verbose console.log statements and check via remote debug

Device Manager Alternative

If CLI isn’t your thing, Tizen Studio’s Device Manager does all this with a GUI:

I prefer CLI for automation but Device Manager is great for one-off testing.

Going to Production

Development deployment is one thing. For actual distribution:

That’s a whole other process involving app review, screenshots, and compliance testing. But for dev work, the above gets you moving.

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