Source: Rene Ritchie
The Siri Remote, still called the Apple TV Remote in regions without Siri support, is a big part of what makes the Apple TV stand out from the rest of the set-top boxes on the market. It’s got a touch surface, an accelerometer and gyroscope, Bluetooth connectivity, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, and, as the name suggests — Siri.
If you’re new to the Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K and want to know what every button on the Siri Remote does, or have been using it for a while and are ready to dig into all the available button combinations, here’s your in -depth guide.
Table of Contents
The anatomy of the Siri Remote
Other buttons on the Siri Remote let you return to a previous screen, access Control Center, pause media playback, or jump into the Apple TV app or back to the tvOS home screen. A Siri button on the remote summons Apple’s virtual assistant on-demand, and a built-in microphone picks up your commands without having to shout across the room.
If your TV is equipped with HDMI-CEC — as most modern TVs are, you can also control your TV with your Siri Remote. With TV control enabled, your Siri Remote can adjust the volume on your TV and even turn off your TV when you put your Apple TV to sleep.
How to charge the Siri Remote
However, unlike most other remote controls, you don’t have to keep a box of batteries lying around to re-up your Siri Remote every time the battery dies. Instead, you can plug in a Lightning cable, and you can charge the Siri Remote while watching movies on Apple TV.
Using the Siri Remote to put your TV to sleep
If your Apple TV gets a little sluggish or buggy, you can also restart your Apple TV using two buttons on the Siri Remote.
Using the Siri Remote with tvOS
Like your iPhone and iPad, tvOS also offers a way to manage apps that run in the background. By double-clicking the Home button on the Siri Remote, you can switch between apps with multitasking on Apple TV, and you can even force-close programs with a swipe.
Some gestures offer a quicker and easier way to skip between chapters in a movie. Others can make hunting down a favorite scene pain-free by calling up a pop-up preview on the media playback timeline. For an in-depth breakdown of all of these gestures, we suggest looking at our guide: How to control playback on Apple TV with the Siri Remote.
What Siri can and can’t do on Apple TV
Siri on the Apple TV is built with smart learning and can understand contextual questions for general inquiries. For example, you can ask to look something up and then follow up with a second question related to the first without referring back to the first.
If you have HomeKit-enabled accessories, the Siri Remote can activate favorite scenes and pull up a live feed of connected cameras. While you can access your HomeKit cameras via Control Center, accessing them via voice commands will bring them up in a handy picture-in-picture view. This PiP view floats above your content, so you can keep an eye on your home without interrupting playback.
Secret Siri Remote controls
Go beyond the basics with the Siri Remote for Apple TV
As you can see, the Siri Remote is a vital part of the Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD experience that goes beyond basic controls. With just a click, swipe, or voice command, you can summon your favorite Apple TV+ shows on-demand, peek in on a HomeKit camera, play the latest tunes via Apple Music, or pick up right where you left off in an Apple Arcade game.
Updated March 2022: Updated for tvOS 15.4.
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