Universal Remote TV for Roku

Review by eFreeware

The people most likely to want this app are households that already own a Roku and have lost, broken or grown tired of the physical remote. Universal Remote TV for Roku, from AxenGrid Labs, is a free Android app that turns a phone or tablet into a replacement controller for a Roku Streaming Player or a Roku TV. It has drawn more than 10,000 installs and holds a 4.7 average from 1,703 ratings, which suggests a fair number of users have found it useful enough to keep.

What it gives you is the everyday set of controls in one place: navigation, playback, volume and channel switching, plus a touchpad for scrolling and a keypad for typing. The pitch is straightforward. When the remote slips between couch cushions, the phone in your pocket becomes the remote instead, and you do not have to hunt for anything.

Everyday control when the remote goes missing

The clearest use case is the one the developer leads with: the original remote is gone, and you want to keep watching. Because the app connects to the Roku over the same Wi-Fi network, the phone can stand in for the missing controller without any hardware to buy. I would expect this to matter most in a living room where the remote is shared, borrowed or simply misplaced on a regular basis.

Playback controls are the ones you reach for constantly. Pausing a movie, rewinding a scene or skipping an intro are all handled from the phone, so you are not getting up to find the remote mid-episode. The app suits small, frequent interruptions, when reaching for a second device is less trouble than searching for the first one.

Volume and channel controls round out the basics, which means the phone can cover the same ground as the original remote for most viewing sessions. The app is pitched as a full-featured replacement rather than a novelty, and the combination of navigation, playback, volume and channel keys is what makes that claim reasonable.

Typing searches without the on-screen keyboard

One of the more practical arguments for a phone-based remote is text entry. Entering a movie title or a YouTube search on a TV screen with a directional pad is slow, and the app's built-in keypad lets you type on the phone instead. If you sign into streaming accounts on the Roku, that same keypad is what you would use for passwords and usernames.

There is a caveat worth knowing before you rely on it. A few services, YouTube and Hulu+ among them, bring their own keypads, so the Android keyboard may not reach them. So the keypad is a genuine improvement in many places, but it is not a universal replacement for typing on the TV, and the developer is upfront about that limit.

For everything else, the app lists streaming channels with large icons, so you can open Netflix, Prime Video or Spotify without digging through the TV menus. That is a small convenience, but it is the kind of thing that adds up if you switch between services often.

Two ways to navigate, one touchpad

The app offers both button navigation and touchpad navigation, and you can switch between them depending on what feels natural. Some people prefer pressing directional keys; others would rather swipe around a large touchpad. Having both means you are not locked into one style, which is a sensible choice for an app that has to serve a whole household.

The touchpad is described as large, and that matters for scrolling through long lists of shows or moving around a menu grid. A cramped touch area would make the phone remote frustrating to use, so the emphasis on size is a reasonable design decision rather than a marketing line.

The interface is described as clean and minimal, with the aim that anyone in the family can pick it up. I would expect that to be the deciding factor for a lot of buyers: a remote app that needs explaining is not much use when someone else in the house needs to pause the TV.

What setup actually requires

Setup is limited to one condition: the Android device and the Roku have to be on the same Wi-Fi network. Once that is true, the app connects automatically to the Roku Streaming Player or Roku TV, so there is no manual pairing to repeat every time you open it. Getting started is about as simple as this category gets.

The automatic connection is the part I would value most. Pairing a remote app by hand each session would defeat the purpose of having it on your phone, so the fact that it reconnects on its own is the feature that makes the app practical rather than merely possible.

Which Roku hardware it covers

Compatibility is broad within the Roku family. The app works with Roku Streaming Stick, Express, Express+, Premiere, Premiere+, Ultra and Roku TV models, and the Roku TV brands named include TCL, Sharp, Insignia, Hisense, RCA and Hitachi. If your television is one of those Roku-based sets, the app is built for it.

The device you run the app on is more restricted. It is designed for Android smartphones and tablets, and it does not support Wear OS, so a smartwatch is not an option here. That is a narrow limitation, but it is worth knowing if you were hoping to control the TV from your wrist.

The developer also notes that the app is not affiliated with Roku, Inc. and is not an official Roku product. That is standard for third-party remote apps, and it does not change what the app does, but it is the kind of disclosure worth reading before you assume any official backing.

A good fit for Roku households

This app suits anyone who already has a Roku and wants a second controller without buying hardware. It is particularly useful in a home where the remote goes missing, where several people share the TV, or where typing searches on the TV screen has become a chore. The combination of a touchpad, a keypad and quick channel icons covers the tasks that come up most often.

It is also a reasonable option for someone who wants to control the TV from a phone or tablet rather than a dedicated remote, as long as that device runs Android. The lack of Wear OS support means watch-based control is not part of the package, and the keyboard limitation in apps like YouTube and Hulu+ is a real constraint rather than a minor footnote.

The app is free to download, contains no ads, and offers in-app purchases. I would treat the in-app purchases as something to check inside the app rather than something to plan around.

A practical replacement for a lost Roku remote

Universal Remote TV for Roku does one job and does it in a way that should appeal to most Roku owners: it puts the remote on the phone you already carry. The same-network requirement is the only real setup step, automatic connection removes the repetitive pairing that would otherwise make it annoying, and the mix of touchpad, buttons and keypad covers the everyday controls people actually use.

The limits are clear enough. It is built for Android phones and tablets rather than Wear OS, and the built-in keypad will not help in apps that insist on their own on-screen keyboard, such as YouTube and Hulu+. Those are narrow constraints, but they are worth weighing if text entry is the main reason you are considering it.

If you have a Roku and want a free backup controller that lives on your phone, this is a sensible install, especially in a household where the physical remote has a habit of disappearing. If you need watch-based control or expect to type into every app from the phone, the app's scope is narrower than that.