By Klaus Jakobsen, developer of A Decent Remote 
Three minutes, seven photos, one LG. The status bar in the shots runs 20:52 to 20:55, and that is the whole thing: open, scan, tap, PIN, done. What follows is what each step is really doing, because knowing that makes the failures obvious when they happen.
Why is a scan needed at all?
Because there is no directory. Your phone has no idea what is on the network until it asks, so the app sends discovery probes across your own subnet and listens for anything that answers like a TV.
That is why the scanning screen shows the subnet it is working on. In the photo it reads 192.168.111.x, which is this house’s range. If your TV’s IP starts with different numbers, the two devices are on separate networks and no amount of waiting will change the result. That single line is the fastest diagnostic in the app.
Guest networks are the usual culprit, and so is a mesh router with client isolation switched on, since isolation exists precisely to stop devices talking to each other. The TV not showing up guide covers the rest of the causes.
Why does the TV want a PIN when I already picked it from a list?
Because the list only proves something answered. Anything on the network could claim to be a TV, and anything on the network could ask to control yours. The code on the screen is the TV checking that whoever is asking can see the screen, which is a decent proxy for being in the room.
Type it correctly and the TV hands back a long-lived token that the app stores in the iPhone keychain. Every launch after that authenticates with the token instead, which is why the PIN appears exactly once per TV.
Getting it wrong costs nothing. The TV cancels, generates a new code, and you type that one.
Does every brand work this way?
No, and it is worth knowing which one you own before you start.
LG, Vizio, Android TV and Google TV show a numeric code on screen, as in the photos. Samsung skips the digits and shows an Allow or Deny prompt instead, which has to be accepted with the TV remote or the buttons on the set. Roku, Fire TV, Philips, Panasonic up to 2018 and most Hisense sets ask for nothing and connect the moment you tap them.
Apple TV is its own case, with a code for older boxes and a different handshake on tvOS 15 and up, covered in the Apple TV guide. The brand-by-brand pairing detail is in using an iPhone as a TV remote.
Why is the app in Danish in the photos?
Because the phone is. The app takes its language from the iPhone, so “Fandt 1 tv” and “Leder efter dit tv” read “Found 1 TV” and “Looking for your TV” on an English phone. The screens are laid out identically in every language, so the photos still track.
What comes after pairing?
The remote in the last photo is the whole app: power, volume, inputs, a touchpad, app shortcuts, and a keyboard button that types into TV search fields from the iPhone keyboard. The most useful thing to try first is a YouTube search, which is photographed end to end in the YouTube walkthrough.
The layout is also editable, so the buttons you actually use can be dragged where your thumb lands: building your own remote layout.
