By Klaus Jakobsen, developer of A Decent Remote 
Typing “relaxing jazz playlist” one arrow-press at a time is how YouTube on a TV punishes you for not finding the remote’s voice button, or for owning a TV without one. Your iPhone already has the good keyboard; here’s how to point it at the big screen.
How does searching from the phone actually work?
There are two mechanically different routes, and they suit different moments.
Casting from the YouTube app (Google’s built-in way): open YouTube on the iPhone, search there, tap the cast icon on a video, and it plays on the TV. This works on cast-capable TVs when both devices share Wi-Fi. The limitation: browsing happens on the phone, so the couch watches a loading spinner while one person scrolls privately.
Opening the search on the TV (the remote-app way): type the phrase into A Decent Remote and it launches the TV’s own YouTube app straight into the results page. The big screen shows the results grid, navigation continues with the remote or the phone, and everyone sees the options. One keyboard, zero letter-grid.
Why is this harder than it sounds (and why most apps don’t do it)?
TV platforms generally refuse outside text input inside streaming apps: YouTube’s search field on a webOS or Fire TV only accepts its own on-screen keyboard. The workaround is to relaunch YouTube with the search phrase passed as a launch parameter, which every platform allows because it’s the same mechanism the TV’s own voice search uses. A Decent Remote implements that hand-off per platform: LG, Samsung, Fire TV, Android/Google TV, Roku and Philips all take the phrase and open results directly. One visible quirk worth knowing: on LG the screen blinks black for a beat while webOS relaunches the app; that’s the platform, and the results follow immediately.
What about typing everywhere else on the TV?
Search fields outside streaming apps (the TV’s global search, logins, Wi-Fi passwords) take direct keyboard input on most platforms, which the same app provides: details per platform in the Roku typing guide, the Fire TV and Android TV typing guide, and the Apple TV keyboard guide.
