After seventy years of honorable career, the remote control could be retired, replaced by something much more convenient and smart
The way we use smart TVs is about to change forever, for the better: one of the most awaited functions on these devices, so central to everyday life, is in fact about to arrive in Italy thanks to Google. The novelty, in fact, does not concern all TVs but only those with Android TV or Google TV.
The novelty consists in being able to use an Android smartphone as a TV remote control. Any Android smartphone, any Android TV or Google TV.
The novelty consists in being able to use an Android smartphone as a TV remote control. With the phone, therefore, we'll be able to easily move around the Smart TV interface, enter passwords to access streaming platforms, enter text to search for a movie, a TV series or any other content. All this, at the moment, is done through the TV remote control in a much more uncomfortable way. With the smartphone, we can also do things that are impossible with the normal remote control: for example, copy and paste the name of a movie that a friend has sent us in chat.
How to turn your smartphone into a remote control
When the new feature is available, and it will be soon, just a few taps will be enough to turn your smartphone into the remote control of the Smart TV. Just open the Quick Controls dropdown and press on the pencil, which is the icon that allows us to customize this area.
Android will show us all the available quick controls, among which we'll also find the one with the remote control icon. Dovremo tenere premuta tale icona e trascinarla nell’area dei controlli rapidi, nella posizione che più preferiamo.
A questo punto, quando vorremo usare lo smartphone per comandare la TV, non dovremo fare altro che toccare l’icona del telecomando. Con lo smartphone potremo:
- Accendere e spegnere la TV
- Navigare nell’interfaccia
- Controllare la riproduzione
- Alzare e abbassare il volume
- Attivare Google Assistant
- Inserire testo con la tastiera del telefono
Smartphone come telecomando: quando in Italia
Questa nuova funzione è già attiva negli Stati Uniti e arriverà “entro poche settimane" anche in altri 14 Paesi, Italia compresa:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgio
- Canada
- Francia
- Germania
- Giappone
- India
- Irlanda
- Italia
- Messico
- Regno Unito
- Spagna
- Svizzera
Telecomando, addio per sempre?
Already today there are apps that allow to turn smartphones into TV remote controls, but these are third-party solutions that need to be configured by hand and that don't always work with all smartphone/TV pairs.
The large-scale extension of the possibility to use any Android smartphone as a remote control of any Android TV changes everything and opens up a further possibility: in the future televisions could be sold without a remote control. This solution would offer, among other things, a great advantage: since in each family there are multiple smartphones (each one has its own), the TV could recognize who is watching it from the phone it uses to change interface with Android TV.
This way the TV could propose to the user its list of favorite channels, shows to finish watching, personalized suggestions and much more. It would also be a secure solution, since by now all Android smartphones have at least one form of user identification via biometric methods, such as face or fingerprint unlocking. All of which, on the other hand, regular remotes will never have.