I misplaced my Android TV remote and need a way to control my TV with my phone. I tried a couple of remote apps, but they either would not connect or did not recognize the TV. I need help finding the best way to use an Android phone or iPhone as an Android TV remote, including any settings I may need to turn on.
Yep. I did this after my Android TV remote vanished into the couch dimension, and the phone route worked fine.
If you’re on iPhone, TVRem is one option I tried for controlling an Android TV from a phone. It handled the usual stuff, moving around menus, volume, play and pause, and typing with the phone keyboard. Typing search terms on glass is still faster than pecking through an on screen alphabet with arrow keys. Setup took me about a minute once both devices were on the same Wi Fi.
Product page and video:
On Android, I’d start with the Google TV app. It already includes a remote mode for Android TV and Google TV boxes and TVs. When I used it, pairing was simple, and voice search plus keyboard input saved a lot of time. It tends to work across most mainstream Android TV setups without much fiddling.
One thing tripped me up once. Your phone and the TV need to be on the same Wi Fi network. If one device is on guest Wi Fi or mobile data, the TV usually won’t show up in the device list.
I ended up sticking with the phone remote more than I expected. It’s handy when the original remote is dead, missing, or makes text entry feel slow and dumb. If you search a lot in YouTube, Plex, or streaming apps, the phone keyboard alone makes it worth doing.
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Skip the random remote apps for a minute. If they do not see the TV, the issue is often the network or the TV settings, not the app.
Try this path instead.
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Plug in a USB keyboard.
If your TV or box has USB, connect any cheap keyboard. Android TV usually supports arrow keys, Enter, Esc, and volume shortcuts. This is the fastest fix if you need control right now. -
Use HDMI-CEC from another device.
If you have a game console, Chromecast, Fire TV stick, Blu-ray player, or soundbar connected, its remote might move around the TV menus through CEC. On many TVs this is called Anynet+, Bravia Sync, Simplink, VIERA Link, or CEC. I use this more than phone remotes, tbh. It is often less flaky. -
Check Bluetooth accessories.
Some Android TV devices let you pair a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard from the pairing screen if one was paired before, or through a physical button on the box. A mouse works suprisingly well for emergency control. -
Restart the network gear.
I disagree a bit with @mikeappsreviewer on app choice being the main answer. If multiple apps fail, reboot the TV, phone, and router first. On home networks, device discovery fails a lot after sleep states or DHCP changes. A 2 minute reboot fixes it more often than people expect. -
Turn off AP isolation or guest Wi-Fi.
This one gets missed. Guest networks often block device-to-device traffic, so your phone sees the internet but not your TV. Same problem with some mesh systems. -
Last resort, Ethernet swap.
If the TV is on Ethernet and your phone is on Wi-Fi, it should still work on a normal router. If it does not, your router is segmenting traffic. Moving the TV to Wi-Fi for a few mins sometimes makes pairing work.
If you post your TV brand and model, people can narrow it down fast. Some brands are annoyng about this stuff.
If the remote apps already failed, I’d try one thing neither @mikeappsreviewer nor @ombrasilente really leaned on: use the TV maker’s own app, not a generic “universal remote” app.
Sony, TCL, Hisense, Philips, etc sometimes expose control features through their own ecosystem app even when third party apps act weird. The generic apps are hit or miss because Android TV discovery can be flaky as heck. Brand apps sometimes find the TV faster because they’re built around that hardware.
Also, if your TV has Google Assistant enabled, try this from your phone:
- open Google Assistant
- say “open YouTube on living room TV”
- “pause the TV”
- “turn volume down on TV”
That won’t fully replace a remote, but it can get you unstuck enough to navigate until you fix pairing.
Another underrated option is the Android TV Remote Service setting on the TV itself. Some sets have it disabled, buried in settings, or restricted by battery/network optimization. If you can get into settings by any method, check:
- Apps
- System apps
- Android TV Remote Service
- make sure it’s enabled
And on your phone, disable VPN if you use one. Seriously, this breaks discovery more often than people admit. Same with private DNS sometimes. Dumb, but real.
If you have a smart speaker tied to the same Google account, you can sometimes control basic playback by voice too. Not perfect, but better than poking the screen like a caveman lol.
So yeah, my order would be:
- brand-specific TV app
- Google Assistant voice commands
- disable VPN/private DNS
- check Android TV Remote Service on the TV
Generic remote apps are usualy the last thing I’d trust, not the first.
Buy a replacement remote made for your exact TV model. Check the model number on the rear label, then search it with “replacement remote.” Many IR remotes work after inserting battries, with no app, Wi-Fi, or pairing.
Confirm compatiblity before ordering. Match the full model number, not only the brand. Prices often sit around $10 to $20. If needed today, bring the model number to an electronics store and test a universal IR remote.
Heads up on why some of those ‘remote apps’ flat out refuse to work: a lot of the older universal ones are built around an IR blaster, and almost no phone has shipped with one for years now. If you grabbed a couple of apps at random and they never connected, there’s a decent chance one or two of them were trying to fire infrared through hardware your phone doesn’t have. Nothing to troubleshoot there, they just can’t work on that device.
For actual Android TV, everything runs over the network, so @ombrasilente and @sonhadordobosque are right that the failure is usually network or a disabled service, not the app itself. The Android TV Remote Service tip is the one I’d check first. If that service is off or getting killed by battery optimization, no app on earth will find the TV, and you’ll waste an hour blaming the wrong thing.
Where I’d push back a little is on the pile of workarounds before the simplest one. A USB or Bluetooth keyboard is fine, but people forget that if the TV has ever been paired with the physical remote’s Bluetooth, sometimes just holding the TV’s power button or unplugging it for a minute brings the pairing screen back so you can attach something new. Worth trying before you go digging for cables.
The Google TV app is genuinely the path of least resistance on Android, and I wouldn’t bother with third party apps unless it fails. TVRem got mentioned for iPhone and it’s a reasonable pick there, but treat it as a convenience layer, not a fix for a discovery problem. If the TV won’t show up for the official app, a different app won’t magically see it either. Same network, same story.
And honestly, if you find the original remote next week, the buy-a-replacement suggestion from @voyageurdubois is still the least annoying long term answer. Phone remotes are great for typing search terms and terrible for the moment your battery dies mid show.