By Klaus Jakobsen, developer of A Decent Remote onn is Walmart’s house electronics brand, and its TVs and streaming boxes are everywhere because they cost half of what the big names charge. Losing the remote is not a real problem: onn never built its own smart TV software, so every onn device runs a platform your iPhone already speaks.
Which onn do I have?
Two possibilities, and the home screen settles it in one glance. onn TVs are almost all Roku TVs: a grid of app tiles, purple accents, Roku branding on boot. The onn 4K streaming box and 4K pro run Google TV: a search bar on top and rows of recommendations. Nothing else ships under the brand, so once you know which screen you have, the rest of this guide is a straight line.
How do I control an onn Roku TV from my iPhone?
Roku is the friendliest platform there is for lost remotes: no pairing, no prompt, no code.
- Make sure the iPhone is on the same Wi-Fi as the TV.
- Open A Decent Remote; the onn TV appears in the scan.
- Tap it and you’re controlling the TV: volume, d-pad, power, apps, and typing with the phone keyboard.
If the TV lost its Wi-Fi (new router, moved apartment), the joystick behind the right rear corner navigates Settings so you can rejoin, and the Roku guide has the hotspot trick that recreates the TV’s old network entirely from the phone.
How do I pair with an onn Google TV box?
Same start: same Wi-Fi, open the app, tap the box in the scan. Google TV then puts a six-digit code on the TV screen; type it into the app once and the box remembers your phone from then on. The code screen is a security feature, not a hurdle: anyone on the Wi-Fi could otherwise control your TV. The Android TV guide covers the rare cases where the code never appears or the box refuses new pairings.
What still needs a physical remote?
Honestly: one thing. A factory-fresh onn device must be walked through initial Wi-Fi setup before any network app can see it, and that first setup wants the bundled remote (or, on the boxes, the physical button). After that, the phone does everything daily use requires, and does typing and app-launching better. If the TV won’t show up in the scan at all, run the network checklist: on onn Roku TVs also confirm Settings, System, Advanced system settings, “Control by mobile apps” was not disabled.
