TV Remote
For Android · US$4.99, once
Your phone, as the remote for a television running Android TV™ or Google TV™ — with the one thing a plastic remote cannot do: a keyboard.
Read this before buying. This app works over your Wi-Fi network, not infrared. It controls televisions, projectors and streaming boxes that run Android TV or Google TV, and nothing else — not an ordinary television, not a cable box, not a soundbar. If your television does not run one of those systems, this app will not help you.
Typing is the point
Spelling out a film title with a D-pad takes about twenty presses per word. Here you type on your phone and the letters appear on the television as you type them — your keyboard's own dictation included.
Everything the remote has
D-pad, back, home and media keys, volume that reads the television's real level rather than guessing at it, and a swipe pad when pressing an arrow forty times is not appealing.
Search that reaches YouTube
YouTube draws its own search box, which ordinary text input cannot reach. The app sends a search straight to it instead.
It reconnects itself
When the television sleeps or the network drops, the connection comes back on its own rather than making you pair again.
One purchase, and that is the end of it
The remote apps this one sits beside on Google Play ask for $2.99 a week, or $16 to unlock the media keys, or run advertising over the D-pad while you are trying to press it. This one is US$4.99, paid once. Google Play converts that into your own currency, so the figure on the store page may not match to the cent.
- No advertising anywhere in the app.
- No subscription and no locked features.
- No account — there is no server to hold one.
It collects nothing
No analytics, no advertising SDK, and no outbound connections to anything but your own television. The app asks for no access to your microphone, camera, contacts, location or files. Your pairing credentials, shortcuts and recent searches live in the phone's own app storage and leave with the app when you uninstall it.
Questions
Will this control my ordinary television?
No. It works over Wi-Fi, not infrared, and speaks only the remote-control protocol built into Android TV and Google TV. An ordinary television, a cable box, a soundbar or an air conditioner are all out of reach.
Which devices does it work with?
Televisions, projectors and streaming boxes running Android TV or Google TV. It was developed and tested against an XGIMI projector. Other devices on the same systems should behave the same way, because the protocol belongs to the system rather than to the hardware — but one projector is what has actually been tested, and saying otherwise would be guessing.
How does pairing work?
The phone finds the television on your network, the television shows a six-digit code, you type it in once. After that the app reconnects on its own.
Do I need an account, or an internet connection?
Neither. There is no sign-up, and the app talks only to your television over your local network. The phone and the television do have to be on the same Wi-Fi.
Is there a subscription?
No. One purchase on Google Play, no tiers, no features held back.
What data does it collect?
None. See the privacy policy, which enumerates exactly what the app keeps on your phone and why.
What you need
A television, projector or streaming box running Android TV or Google TV, on the same Wi-Fi network as your Android phone.
This app is not made by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Google. Android TV and Google TV are trademarks of Google LLC, used here only to say which televisions the app works with.