It seems Google TV which is now a rebrand of the erstwhile Google Play Movies & TV has found popularity among the viewers. On the other hand, the inconsistency of this feature's rollout and the fact that most people don't seem to have it yet is also a little frustrating.In this guide, we have outlined the steps to use an Android Phone/iPhone as a Remote Control for Chromecast with Google TV. Plus, having the remote available via a quick setting button is a huge convenience. Input was arguably a tiny bit more laggy than the hardware remote, but that lag was tiny, consistent, and basically unnoticeable in practice. I didn't run into any problems with random disconnections, as I remember experiencing long ago on the old Android TV remote app. However, it's also worth stressing that these are really the only issues I had, and one of them isn't even on Google. That might not seem like a big deal, but if you're pulling your phone out to rewind a bit while in the middle of a movie, it could be frustrating to sit and wait for it to be detected. My Z Flip3 can usually see it within a few seconds, but my Pixel 4a can randomly take 10+ seconds to see it. Lastly, I noticed that sometimes it can take an order of magnitude longer to spot the Android/Google TV device when you fire up the remote. The company tells us it doesn't have anything to share regarding any voice input behavior changes, though. Google should probably make both methods behave the same for consistency - not that Google is exactly known for UI consistency. If you're used to using the hardware remote, you'll have to re-learn to do that differently on your phone. On your phone, you tap once, and it starts listening, but pressing and holding does nothing. On the latter, you press and hold while speaking for the Assistant to listen. While that could be the fault of my Z Flip3, the mechanism for triggering the Assistant via the software remote is also different than it is on Google's hardware remote for the Chromecast with Google TV. For me, using the Assistant button for voice input was sometimes unreliable, simply not accepting voice input. The second issue I ran into could be device-specific, but either way, it shows an inconsistency in Google's interface between hardware remotes and software. With and without volume controls - they'll appear automatically depending on how you have things configured. There's also another workaround you can do on some Android TV devices, like the Chromecast with Google TV, telling them to control volume internally on their own (Settings -> Remotes & Accessories -> Set up remote buttons -> Chromecast volume), and that could be a solution for some - though it can introduce its own potential problems. So far as I can tell, even just a soundbar would likely fix the issue for me - and when I get around to that or rebuilding my receiver/speaker setup, I should be fine. Other HDMI-CEC implementations may also work for internal TV volume. If your TV has Android or Google TV built-in, Google tells me that this won't be an issue, and volume controls will work correctly without any finagling. (Thanks, Samsung.) That means that although my Chromecast with Google TV can adjust my TV's volume using IR on the included hardware remote, it can't be configured to allow the software remote to adjust my TV's volume itself. Every manufacturer handles HDMI-CEC a little differently, and the version in my TV can apparently pass volume commands back through to an external device, but it won't work for my TV's built-in speakers. Though my TV has Anynet+ branded HDMI-CEC functionality and should ostensibly be able to accept the required volume commands from my Chromecast with Google TV via HDMI, my TV won't actually allow external devices to control the internal volume. But that's not Google's fault, it's mine and Samsung's. But, that's not really a problem with the remote, just developers (including some of Google's own) inflicting their obstinacy on unsuspecting customers.Īs you can easily see in many of my screenshots above, volume controls didn't work for me at all. Searching for something on YouTube via the Android app remains an awful time without a standard text input box. YouTube, of course, loves to do everything it possibly can in its own very dumb way, and the Android TV app is no exception. Of course, this still doesn't fix the problem that many Android TV apps use non-standard text input fields. When you select or enter a text field, Gboard opens so you can type, as the old app did. That power button can also indicate the current state: Red for powered down, white/gray for on. Up top, you have a button to exit the remote view, a drop-down menu to select other Android or Google TV devices (should you have more than one), a button to trigger text input, a power button to turn things on or off, and a three-dot menu that lets you switch directional input types.
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