#Chromecast remote app iphone plus#
#Chromecast remote app iphone tv#
#Chromecast remote app iphone free#

The Roku remote app has options for voice commands (another way to make searching easier), a button to enable private listening on your phone, and the ability to toggle to any of the streaming apps you have on your Roku device without having to return to the home screen.

#Chromecast remote app iphone tv#

It is also, as you can imagine, much easier to type in search items on your phone keyboard than with a TV remote control. From there, you can operate as you normally would with your Roku remote, only with the familiar square contours of your iPhone.

#Chromecast remote app iphone plus#

It is an exact replica of your Roku remote, complete with that comforting purple plus sign in the center. Once you actually figure out which Roku device in your apartment is which, the actual Roku remote app is incredibly intuitive. After several attempts to change the channel on my own bedroom’s Roku, I got a (rather polite, given the circumstances) knock on my door from my roommate, who was wondering why I decided to terrorize his bedroom TV from afar.

Regardless: Name your Roku devices when prompted! Be as specific as you can! This will help you avoid awkward situations like connecting to the Roku named “bedroom” that is really your roommate’s device, while your own bedroom Roku is named “living room” because that’s where you used it back when you named it.

Here’s where we’re going to take a minute to nod to the importance of naming your devices and updating those names as necessary - if you, like me, tend to blow past seemingly unnecessary steps, like naming your electronic devices, because the practice sounds twee and maybe you were hung-over the morning you were setting up the Roku and weren’t feeling your creative juices quite as strongly as the golden-age- Simpsons-level writers’ room members who are naming the Wi-Fi networks in your area.īut this is not a place for me to work out my neuroses about clever Wi-Fi-network names. From the “Devices” tab at the bottom of the screen, you can toggle between, say, your bedroom TV’s Roku and the Roku TV you’ve got in your living room. Quite conveniently, Roku has its own downloadable app that lets you control any of your home Roku devices from the comfort of your phone. First things first, though, and that was looking into whether I could find an iPhone replacement for my ever-slippery Roku remote. What I do use quite a bit, as I’m sure you all do too, are Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, and whatever other streaming platforms are currently draining my bank account as efficiently as a cable bill ever has. Of course, I don’t use Chromecast all that much unless I’m dealing with (obnoxious entertainment-writer privilege incoming) online screeners. Up until last fall, when Google released its new Chromecast with Google TV - which featured a dedicated remote, familiarly pill-shaped, of course - the only options for controlling your Chromecast were to either hack your TV remote or use the Google Home app on your phone. Let’s start with the good news: If you make frequent use of Google Chrome, you’ve likely already used your phone as a remote. Alas, like most things in 2021, this task, too, proved to be more challenging than I’d realized. Naturally, if given the choice between the lubed-up suppository supplied by these streaming devices or the familiar, angular device that sits in my hand all day anyway, I would much rather use my phone as a remote control.

#Chromecast remote app iphone free#

Or whatever it is that has decreed that this generation of remote controls be shaped like engorged bean pods and factory-coated with the spray Clark Griswold coated the bottom of his sled with in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation so that the act of reaching for your remote control becomes an Olympic-level test of grip strength and - after it inevitably slips free from your hand - quick reflexes. As with everything dumb, this seems to stem from a misjudgment of form over function. Actually, I don’t, because I probably would end up wailing incoherently. Who designed the remote control for a Roku? Or an Amazon Fire Stick? Or an Apple TV? Where are they right now? I just want to talk. Photo-Illustration: by Vulture Photo Getty Images