If you’re using the Apple TV remote found in your iPhone’s Control Center, there’s a hidden surprise you’ll love with the iOS 16 update – the one that lets you use the remote without ever having to open Control Center. control.
You can use the Apple TV Remote to control media playback on your Apple TV or smart TV with AirPlay 2 connectivity. Apple TV (3rd generation) and newer models should already be usable with Apple TV Remote on your iPhone. AirPlay 2-enabled smart TVs must be added to your Home app in an assigned room before you can use Apple TV Remote to control them.
It’s a simple tool for adjusting volume levels, navigating menus, playing and pausing media, changing channels, performing searches, and controlling other essentials. But on iOS 15.7 and earlier, you can only open Apple TV Remote from Control Center. Even Siri, App Library or Spotlight Search cannot help you. Closing the remote will take you back to the control center.
Use Apple TV Remote in the app switcher now
On iOS 16.0 and later, the Apple TV remote acts more like an app than just a control in Control Center. When using Apple TV Remote and switching to another app, you can use App Switcher to recall the remote whenever you need it, just like you can with any other app.
While App Switcher support is a big win when you need to multitask, you still can’t open Apple TV Remote from Siri, App Library, or Spotlight search. And Apple TV Remote will eventually disappear from your iPhone’s app switcher after a period of inactivity.
But Apple TV Remote has a secret beyond its support in your iPhone’s app switcher, one that many of you probably never thought possible: you can turn it into an app.
Make Apple TV Remote act like other apps
OK, it’s already an app and technically it always has been since it has its own .app file in iOS’s list of hidden apps, just like Code Scanner and Print Center. What’s different is that Apple finally assigned a URL scheme to Apple TV Remote.
If you don’t know what a URL scheme is, think of a normal webpage URL or a link on a webpage to email someone through your default email app. The http:// or https:// beginning of a web page URL indicates a web resource using Hypertext Transfer Protocol or Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol, while mailto:// indicates a linked email address. hypertext that you can click or tap to start a draft in your email client.
App developers can assign custom URL schemes to their apps and submit those apps to the App Store. Running the scheme alone in a web browser or from any other application would open the application if it is installed on the device. You can add special parameters to the schema to perform specific actions in the associated application.
Apple offers many of its own application URL schemes, such as Calculator (calc://), Camera (camera://), FaceTime (facetime://), Find My (findmy://), Fitness (fitnessapp://), Music (music://) and News (applenews://). And with iOS 16.0 and later, Apple supports tvremote:// for Apple TV Remote.
Step 1: Get it working with Siri and Spotlight Search
With an assigned URL scheme, you can create a simple shortcut in your Shortcuts app that opens the URL scheme, which opens Apple TV Remote. You can then use that shortcut with Siri, add it to your home screen or app library, and find it through Spotlight Search. And making the shortcut is simple:
- Start a new shortcut from the Shortcuts tab.
- Add the “URL” web action.
- Replace apple.com with tvremote:// in the URL action box.
- Add the “Open URLs” web action.
- Press (v) next to the shortcut name, choose “Rename” and give it a new name, such as “Open Apple TV Remote”, which doubles as a Siri command.
If you only want to use Siri or Spotlight Search to open Apple TV Remote, you can tap “Done” to save the shortcut at this point. But if you want to give it an app icon for the home screen and app library, change the shortcut’s current icon.
Step 2: Add it to your home screen and app library
Tap the current icon next to the shortcut name to open the icon picker. You can also press (v) and then “Choose icon”. You can choose any icon and color you want, but the Apple TV icon might be the most appropriate. Save it with “Done”.
Now let’s add it to the home screen and app library for easier and faster access. Press (v) next to the shortcut name and choose “Add to Home Screen”. You can also tap (i) on the toolbar, then tap “Add to Home Screen”.
It will default to using the shortcut icon as the displayed bookmark icon for the home screen and app library, which should be fine since we’ve already changed it. But you can also tap the icon to select another image from Camera, Files or Photos. Since “Open Apple TV Remote” is quite long for a home screen icon name, try it without “Open”. You can also ditch “Apple” if you want a more elegant presentation.
When you press “Add”, you access the new icon on your home screen. Before using it, return to the Shortcuts app and tap “Done” on the shortcut to make sure it’s saved to your library.
Step 3: Open Apple TV Remote Faster
Whether you stopped after step 1 above or not, you can ask Siri to “open Apple TV Remote” and Apple TV Remote will open. You can also search for the remote in Spotlight and open it from there.
And you can even assign your shortcut to the double- or triple-tap Back Tap gesture, where double or triple tapping Apple on the back of your iPhone will open Apple TV Remote from whatever screen you’re on.
If you followed step 2 above, you can also tap the Apple TV Remote icon from your home screen or app library to open it.
One day, Apple might make Apple TV Remote a real app with an official app icon for the Home screen, App Library, and Spotlight search, like it did with Magnifier. So far, the URL scheme works pretty well.
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