By Klaus Jakobsen, developer of A Decent Remote Short answer: yes, on essentially any smart TV made in the last decade. Your phone becomes a full remote, usually in under a minute, and on some brands with no setup at all.
There are exactly two requirements, and one honest limitation.
What does it actually need?
The TV has to be a smart TV. Not because of the apps on it, but because it needs a network connection and software listening on it. A 2009 flat panel has neither.
Both devices have to be on the same Wi-Fi network. The phone talks to the TV directly across your local network. No internet required, which matters more than it sounds: a phone hotspot with no signal at all works fine.
The limitation: iPhones have no infrared. They never have. Every iPhone remote app works over the network, so nothing can control an old non-smart TV directly. If that is your situation, the honest fix is a streaming stick in the HDMI port, which costs about the price of a takeaway and makes the old panel phone-controllable in the process.
How do I pair it with my TV?
Install A Decent Remote, join the TV’s Wi-Fi, open the app, and it finds the TV on its own. What happens next depends entirely on the brand, so here is the whole map:
| Your TV | What pairing looks like | Full guide |
|---|---|---|
| Roku, Roku TV | Nothing at all. Instant | Roku |
| Chromecast (cast-only) | Nothing at all. Instant | Chromecast |
| Panasonic Viera, up to 2018 | Nothing at all. Instant | Panasonic |
| Philips, 2014 to 2015 | Nothing at all. Instant | Philips |
| Samsung, 2016 onward | Accept an Allow prompt on the TV, once | Samsung |
| LG webOS, 2014 onward | Accept a pairing prompt on the TV, once | LG |
| Sony Bravia | 4-digit PIN shown on the TV | Sony |
| Apple TV | 4-digit PIN shown on the TV | Apple TV |
| Android TV, Google TV | 6-digit code shown on the TV | Android TV |
| Philips, 2016 to Titan OS | PIN shown on the TV | Philips |
| Hisense (VIDAA) | PIN shown on the TV | Hisense |
| Vizio SmartCast | PIN shown on the TV | Vizio |
| Fire TV, Fire TV Stick | One “Allow USB debugging” prompt | Fire TV |
| Insignia, onn, Toshiba | Whichever of the above they run inside | Insignia |
| TCL | Roku or Google TV, so instant or a code | TCL |
| Panasonic, 2019 onward | Not possible. Protocol is encrypted | Panasonic |
Notice how many rows say “nothing at all”. Roku in particular has an open local protocol, so if you have a Roku and a phone on the same network, you are about ninety seconds from a working remote.
The one that catches people out: every prompt in that table appears on the television, which is awkward if the reason you are here is that the remote is missing. Every brand has a way through without it, usually a hidden joystick under the panel or a USB mouse, and each brand guide covers the specific trick for that set.
What does the phone do that the plastic remote never could?
This is the part people do not expect when they arrive looking for a rescue and end up keeping the app.
A real keyboard. Typing a password or a search term with a d-pad on an on-screen letter grid takes minutes. Paste it from your password manager and it takes seconds. This works on Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and in the TV’s own search fields on Samsung and LG.
One app for every screen. Most households accumulate a Roku in one room, a Fire TV stick in another and a smart TV in the living room, which normally means three official apps with three different layouts. One universal app is one habit.
Turning the TV on. Counter-intuitively this works, because most TVs keep their network interface listening while “off”. It depends on a standby setting, which the wake guide covers brand by brand.
What are the honest downsides?
It needs the network to be healthy. If the TV does not appear in the app, that is almost always one of seven network conditions rather than a broken app, and the checklist works through them in about two minutes.
Streaming apps block typing. Netflix in particular draws its own keyboard and ignores external input, on every remote app including the official ones. There are decent workarounds, but not a fix.
Most remote apps, including this one, are not free forever. A Decent Remote is free to download and free for your first 50 button presses, then $4.99 a month or $24.99 a year. There are no ads at any point, which is the trade. Where a brand ships a genuinely free official app, like Roku’s, it is worth knowing that. The comparison guide goes through the options brand by brand, including the ones that are not us.
