Automatic discovery
Through Apple's own Bonjour responder, so no unusual network entitlement is involved and nothing about your network is inspected by the app itself.
For iPhone and iPad
TV Remote for iPhone & iPad
The whole remote, on iOS: discovery, pairing, the D-pad, the keyboard, voice search, app shortcuts and casting. Two features are genuinely missing, and this page says which and why — before you install, not after.
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Coming soon to the App Store
- iOS & iPadOS 15.0 or newer
- Free with ads
- Pro $1.99 once
- No special network entitlement
Everything in the press path works exactly the same
Add a television by IP
Always available, and the answer whenever Local Network permission or your router gets in the way.
Pairing with an on-screen code
The same six-character handshake, with credentials stored in the iOS Keychain.
D-pad, touchpad and keypad
All three pages, with haptics through the Taptic Engine and hold-to-repeat.
Volume, mute, channels, power
Including the live volume readout from the television itself.
Keyboard typing
Your iOS keyboard, typed straight into the television's text field. Paste works, so password managers do too.
Voice search
Speech turned into text on the iPhone using Apple's Speech framework, then typed into the television's search box.
App shortcuts
Four applications on the face, chosen and reordered — free, same as Android.
Casting photos, music and video
From your photo library and files, served by the iPhone itself over your Wi-Fi. Nothing is uploaded.
Home-screen widget
Shows the television you are driving and opens the remote in one tap. Free.
Dark, light and system themes
Free on both platforms, always.
Sleep timer
Part of Pro, and it works on iOS.
Two things iOS will not let this app do
Both are platform limits rather than choices, and we would rather you read them here than discover them after paying.
The widget opens the app — it cannot press keys
On Android the widget sends the key itself. On iOS it cannot, reliably: network calls made from a widget's App Intent are widely reported to fail when the host app is not running, and Local Network permission is per-app and unpredictable on recent iOS releases.
A remote button that works only when the app is already open is not a feature. So the iOS widget is a door: it shows which television you are driving and puts you on the remote in one tap. It is free, because it does not bypass anything.
iOS cannot mirror its screen to an Android TV
AirPlay is Apple's protocol and Android TV does not speak it; the mirroring transport an Android TV accepts is not available to a third-party iOS app. There is no workaround that would actually work, so TV Remote does not offer one and does not charge for one.
Casting your own files still works. Photos, music and video go from the iPhone to the television normally — it is only mirroring the live screen that iOS rules out.
There is no Quick Settings tile on iOS either — iOS simply has no
equivalent surface for a third-party app to occupy. Nothing was removed; the place
to put it does not exist.
What iOS will ask you for
Four prompts, each tied to something you asked the app to do.
| Prompt | When it appears, and why |
|---|---|
| Local Network | On first use. Without it, iOS blocks the app from seeing or reaching your television at all. If you decline, Enter IP address is the way in — and the app will tell you rather than spinning a search forever. |
| Microphone | Only when you first hold the voice-search button. |
| Speech Recognition | Alongside the microphone, to turn what you said into text that can be typed into the television. |
| Photo Library | Only when you first cast a picture, so you can choose which ones. |
| Tracking (App Tracking Transparency) | Free tier only, and only for advertising. Saying no keeps everything working identically — you simply get less relevant ads. Pro removes the question's subject entirely. |
If discovery finds nothing and never has: that is almost always
Local Network permission. Open iOS Settings › TV Remote and turn Local Network on.
On some iOS versions a restart is needed before a re-granted permission takes
effect. In the meantime, Enter IP address works regardless.
Step by step
How to use your iPhone as an Android TV remote
- Install TV Remote from the App Store and open it.
- Allow Local Network when iOS asks. This is what lets the app see your television.
- Check the Wi-Fi — the iPhone and the television must be on the same network.
- Pick your television from the list, or tap Enter IP address and type the address from the television's Settings › Network.
- Type the six-character code shown on the television screen.
- Press a key. The pairing is stored in the Keychain and reused automatically.
- Optional — add the widget. Long-press your home screen, tap the + in the corner, search for TV Remote and add it. One tap on it puts you back on the remote.