Losing the TV remote control is quite annoying, since it is very likely that it is within reach, in a corner of the sofa or on the table, going unnoticed among other things, but we still cannot find it. And as we did so, we thought: how come I didn’t see it? NOW, Google wants to help us find the TV remote faster.
TVs equipped with Google TV will be able to use a feature called “Find my remote” or “Find my remote”starting with Android 14. This feature was discovered by Android Authority in the operating system code, and we might see it on supported devices soon.
Can’t find the TV remote? Google TV will help you find it
Google recently introduced new features for Google TV and Android TV at its biggest annual conference of the year, Google I/O 2024. Among them were improvements to multitasking (including support for PiP mode, Or Picture in picture), performance improvements and new power modes.
However, it seems there are still other new features hidden in the operating system code. Android analyst Mishaal Rahman revealed the new “Find My Controller” feature on Google TV with Android 14. This feature will be available natively in the operating system, and when enabled The remote control will make a sound that will help us find it.
This is the same thing offered, for example, by many models of headphones and other smart accessories, and even our mobile phones. If we go to “Find my device”, we can make the phone play a sound to easily find it wherever we are.
In the same way, TV controls with Google TV will be able to play a sound to help us find them: the TV, or streaming device (like a Chromecast TV with Google TV, for example), will include a button that, when pressed, will make the remote emit a sound for 30 seconds
This is how “Find my remote” works on the Walmart Onn Pro streaming box (Image via: 9to5Google).
There is already a device with this feature, Walmart’s Onn Pro TV Box (or streaming device), which was also the first to include the Google TV “magic button.” What we see in the previous image is the solution of this device, which allows us to have a glimpse of how it will work on Google TV with Android 14.
Of course, to use this feature, both the Google TV and the remote must be compatible with it, or in other words, the remote must have a small speaker to broadcast sound, so we can expect to see the “Find My Controller” feature on Google TV devices coming in the future. Logically, this feature is unlikely to reach existing TVs with controls incapable of reproducing sound.
Cover photo | Juan Carlos Lopez for Xataka
By | 9to5Google
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