Your Apple TV 4K remote looks like it’s very simple, and that’s mostly because it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s not home to its fair share of shortcuts. While it might not have the number of buttons its competitors have, its small form factor has made it a favorite of mine.
Over time, I’ve found out that this little remote can do a lot more than you’d initially think, and since I’m still rocking a first-gen Apple TV 4K — but a second-generation remote — I’ve had to use these shortcuts more than I thought. I have since moved on to a SofaBaton X2 remote, but my Apple remote can’t go too far since I use it all the time for voice controls. I would’ve certainly kept using just the Apple remote if it were the only device I had, but a universal remote was too much value to pass up since I could use it to control all of my devices. Nevertheless, here are some Apple TV remote tips to help you get more out of it. Maybe these will help you put off buying a new remote for a long time.
- Brand
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Apple
- Bluetooth codecs
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5.0
- Wi-Fi
-
6
- Ethernet
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Gigabit (128GB model only)
- Storage and RAM
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64GB, 128GB
Force quit apps and reclaim your speeds
Not everything has to be open
My first-gen model becomes sluggish more often than I’d like, which usually means I need to restart my device or close apps that have been open for a while. What you might not realize is that exiting an app and going into another doesn’t close the last one. The Apple TV 4K, and most modern devices for that matter, keep the app running in the background so it’s easier to go back to it when you want. The downside to this is that it can really bog down the performance of your Apple TV.
Fortunately, you can fix this by going to your home screen and double-tapping the home button on your remote. This will take you to a screen that shows all of the open apps you have at the moment. Scroll through them and swipe up to close them out completely. This does mean you’ll need to spend a few extra seconds opening them up again the next time you use them, but it’ll have your device running smoothly. It’s well worth that tradeoff if you ask me, and it’s a solid way to get your Apple TV running like it’s new again.
Fast forward and rewind 10 seconds easily
Just a few taps
Many remotes have a dedicated button for fast forwarding and rewinding, but you’ll notice that the Apple TV 4K’s remote is different in that regard. That doesn’t mean it’s any more difficult to do these things, but it means you’ll have to do some investigation. It’s not hard to figure out, but what you might not realize is that pressing the right or left side of the click pad twice will make your movie jump ahead or go back 10 seconds, depending on which side you selected.
This is nice for when you need to hop back a few seconds but aren’t entirely sure if it was five or six seconds ago. I use this feature quite a bit, and it might actually be the thing I do the most on the remote. It’s so convenient that this is an option, and it has worked on every app I’ve tried it on. I prefer this option over having dedicated buttons for fast forwarding and rewinding, mainly because those buttons never gave me the precision that’s offered here. It’s not perfect, but I’d rather be off by a few seconds than a few minutes. You can always rewind the regular way using the same buttons, so this just gives you more options.
Voice controls are highly underrated
Don’t sleep on these
The thing I miss the most after moving to a universal remote is voice controls, and it’s something I didn’t realize I used so much until I moved on from them. You probably know all about voice controls and how they make typing in passwords or searching for things much easier, but there are even more tricks that are exclusive to voice controls.
For example, if you don’t hear what somebody just said in a movie, you can ask your remote what was just said, and it’ll automatically rewind 10 seconds and toggle on subtitles for you. You don’t even have to hit another button to turn those subtitles off, either, as they’ll do it once you catch back up to where you were. This is one of the coolest features of voice controls that I think a lot of people aren’t aware of. There have been many complaints over the years about shows and movies being mixed poorly, and when that’s coupled with bad TV speakers, it’s just a recipe for disaster. Instead of watching with subtitles always on, this is a nice middle ground that’ll still let you know what was said without being too distracting.
You can remap buttons
One remote can rule them all
Something that annoyed me about my Apple TV remote before getting a universal remote was not being able to use it for everything. Of course, that’s to be expected from a remote without a lot of buttons like the Apple TV remote, but I was able to mitigate a lot of my problems. This was done by remapping my mute button of all things to a button that let me swap between HDMI inputs on my TV. While that still doesn’t make the Apple TV remote a true do-it-all remote, it meant it was a lot closer to being that.
These are the steps you need to take to make that happen.
- Turn on your Apple TV.
- Go to Settings, then Remotes and Devices.
- Select Volume Control, and pick Learn New Device.
- Follow the steps on the screen, but stop when it says to press and hold down your Mute button.
- Pick up your TV remote, and hold down the change input button.
Once you do all this, you can use your Apple TV remote to change inputs to your PS5 or Blu-ray player, which is pretty cool. Obviously, this means you lose your mute button, but I thought it was a fine sacrifice to make since I could just lower my volume with the actual volume buttons. While it doesn’t compare to a full-blown universal remote, this is plenty enough for people who have their game console and Apple TV hooked up to their TV. Once you start to introduce more devices, it becomes difficult to use an Apple remote to control it all, but maybe you’ll have better luck than I did.
