The powerful new HTC One M9 is packed with impressive features and a sleek two-tone aluminum design, but the phone can also act as an easy remote. Like last year’s Galaxy S5 and several phones from LG, the HTC One M9 can act as a remote control for any room and multiple devices in your home.
It’s nice to use a new two-tone all-aluminum unibody, Android 5.0 Lollipop, and a new theme engine to tweak the software, but that’s not all it can do. It can also control your entire living room with the Remote Control app powered by Peel. Here we will explain how to set up and use HTC One M9 as a remote control.
Like most traditional TV remotes, there’s an IR blaster on top of the HTC One M9 to send all the right signals. This allows you to easily control your HDTV, Smart TV, cable box and other home theater equipment such as a receiver. The pre-installed app works great, but essentially the Peel Remote app, which is also available in the Google Play Store, has been packaged and tweaked by HTC. Read on to learn how to use it and how to set up and use the One M9 as a remote control.
In a move similar to Samsung, HTC is using the popular Peel Remote app as the default app on the HTC One M9. It shows off tons of neat features, reminders, and customization. One of my favorite features is the floating transparent button that lets you instantly turn on the remote and then minimize it to change the channel or volume. It floats just like Facebook Messenger icons, but not that distracting. Another option is to have the remote in your popup bar and lock screen for easy access.
Whether you’re saying goodbye on the couch or wanting to get out of bed to find a lost remote, the HTC One M9 has you covered. Here’s how to get started.
Go to the app tray and find and select the Peel Smart Remote app, which is a yellow icon with a circle P icon. Before you begin, you’ll enter your location, zip code, and then the cable provider you choose to pay a lot of each month. This actually gets information from your provider so your phone can give you exactly what it’s broadcasting on your TV, when, and much more.
To get started, follow the listed setup steps to customize your channels and favorite shows and connect your HDTV and other home theater components. Peel Remote app supports almost all TV brands and most cable boxes as well. I set it up with my Vizio in the living room, the Emerson Black Friday special in my room, and my entire home theater system that lets me control the cable box and Denon receiver. Quite nice.
The app will instruct you to turn off each device, then walk you through trying to press the power button, volume down or other stuff until you get the correct code. If you have configured a remote before, you will know what to expect, only the app does everything for you. If the code works, just hit yes, if not, try another one. No typing them, it does everything. Once done you can control channels, volume, input and more. So for my Chromecast or Fire TV stick I can change the input to HDMI 2 and do everything from the phone.
We also really like that the Peel Remote app recommends shows you might like. There’s a TV Guide, Top Picks, and even a customization tab where you can uncheck the ones you don’t like, then get large tiles showing shows based on your interests. You can even enter whether you are male or female and your age range. It’s highly customizable and there’s a profile you can set to set favorites, control live TV, and tweak settings. Show reminders is one of my favorite features, tap on a show and hit the remind me button and you’re done. At any time, simply tap the remote icon in the top right to go back to your remote to check what is needed.
As we mentioned above, the remote can be added to the notification pop-up bar as well as your lock screen. In the Remote Control app, just go to settings and scroll down to check the “Show remote control in notification panel” and “Always on Remote Widget” boxes and you are ready for any situation.
We like that the remotes work directly from the lock screen, but it’s small and not as useful as Samsung’s method. Then, if you enable it, the notification bar is half full with persistent notification and cannot be minimized like Samsung offers. The lock screen controls are small, but the little boxes have power, input, and volume controls, followed by an expand button to unlock the app directly.
Our only complaint is that there is no option to add a quickswitch for the remote in the notification bar shortcuts at the top of your dropdown shade, and we can’t minimize it while in the notification bar. This feature is provided by LG, but HTC has chosen not to put it on top for easy on/off. LG’s remote is its own app, while HTC uses the Peel app so it doesn’t integrate with the software either.
All said and done, the Peel app does pretty much everything you need, and it does it well. The guide above is all you need to know. That is all. So install it and enjoy!
