By Klaus Jakobsen, developer of A Decent Remote If you have a Galaxy phone and a Samsung TV, you might expect them to just work together. They nearly do, though the phone has three Samsung features that sound like a remote, and only one of them is. Here is which one to use.
Which Samsung feature is actually a remote?
SmartThings is the real remote. It is free, comes from Samsung, and is often already on a Galaxy. It needs a Samsung account, and your TV has to be added as a device.
Smart View is not a remote. It mirrors your phone’s screen on the TV, which is good for photos and useless for changing the volume.
The Quick Panel can show your TV as a device once SmartThings knows about it, which gives you a shortcut. It relies on the same setup.
So if you just want the normal Samsung way, open SmartThings, add the TV and use its remote. If that works for you, you are done, and it costs nothing.
When is a separate remote app better?
SmartThings is a smart home app with a remote inside it, and that is where the small frictions come from. The most common reasons to use something else:
- You do not want a Samsung account just to change the channel.
- You are in a holiday rental or at a friend’s house, and you do not want to add their TV to your account.
- You have other TVs in the house, and want one app and one layout.
- You want the remote to be the first thing on screen.
A Decent Remote has no account and no ads. It is free for your first 50 button presses, and after that it is paid. The Android version is being built now. Leave your email and you get one message the day it is on Google Play.
How do I connect my Galaxy phone to the TV?
- Join the same Wi-Fi as the TV. A guest network will not work, because the TV has to be visible to the phone.
- Open the app and tap your TV.
- Look at the TV. A prompt asks whether to allow the new device. Select Allow.
You only do this once. The TV gives the app a token, and later connections are silent.
Older Samsung sets, from about 2010 to 2015, use older ways of pairing. If yours is one of those, a PIN may appear on the screen instead of the prompt.
What if I cannot press Allow?
This is the awkward case: the prompt is on the TV, and the remote is why you are here. Samsung TVs have a small controller button, usually behind the bottom centre of the panel, and a USB mouse works too. The lost remote guide goes through both.
If you pressed Deny by mistake, the TV remembers that. Go to the TV’s external device settings, find the list of connected devices, and remove your phone. Then connect again and the prompt returns.
Can my Galaxy phone turn the TV on?
Often, but not always. A Samsung TV in standby can listen for a wake signal, and the app can use it if the TV has told it the address it needs. Look in the TV’s settings for the option that lets a mobile device turn the TV on, and switch it on while you can.
Do not count on it for a TV that has been unplugged, because it needs one press of the power button before it listens again. If the TV has gone to sleep and is not waking from your phone, the TV’s own button still works, and the wake guide covers the reasons.
What else is worth knowing?
Changing input is one of the most useful things a phone remote does, because the button on the TV is slow. Changing input on a Samsung covers all three ways. You can also type into the TV’s search boxes from the phone’s keyboard, which is much faster than picking letters with arrows.
