Apple TV Remote app launches on iOS

Apple today released its Apple TV Remote iOS app for controlling your fourth-generation Apple TV from your iPhone or iPad. The app offers more functionality than the Apple TV Remote app, which first came to the App Store in 2008, partly because it includes a Siri button, which lets you use voice recognition to query Apple’s Siri virtual assistant.

Apple first announced this app at its WWDC conference in June.

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The new app mirrors the look and feel of the Siri Remote that ships with the fourth-generation Apple TV. It bears some resemblance to the remote that came with the Apple TV Simulator for tvOS that shipped with the Xcode 7.1 beta last year. But that Simulator remote had no Siri button.

When you hit the Siri button and the main pad where you can swipe and tap, the app gives haptic feedback. And unlike the physical Siri Remote, this app lets you type in the search box for the Apple TV and inside individual apps. What’s missing in the app are volume buttons, though, so you may want to keep your Siri Remote handy.

Hooking up the app is as simple as selecting the Apple TV and entering a code that’s shown onscreen into the app. “Make sure you’re on the same Wi-fi network as your Apple TV,” Apple says on the screen where you can choose which Apple TV to control. You can unpair Apple TVs using the edit button on that screen.

Apple introduced its fourth-generation Apple TV in June 2015. It starts at $149. Apple has not disclosed Apple TV sales figures.