Your Apple Watch is now a very handy remote for Apple TV 4K, thanks to watchOS 11
The Remote app is much more useful now and gives you control over the most commonly used features
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One of the cool features of theApple Watchthat I never ever use is the Remote app, which you can use to control yourApple TV 4K. And the reason I never ever use it is because it lacks key features, so for example you’d expect to be able to adjust the volume with a swipe or with the Digital Crown. Nope: you need the remote tool on your iPhone to do that (or theactualremote). But withwatchOS 11,Applehas given the humble app an upgrade that’ll make you actually want to use it with your Apple TV.
The changes mean that at last, Remote really is a remote rather than just a couple of shortcuts. And given the Apple TV remote’s tendency to disappear just when you want to use it, it’s likely to make homes like mine a little more harmonious.
What’s new in the watchOS 11 Remote app
Apple has provided a guide to the revised Remote app on itswebsite, which explains how to pair yourApple Watchwith your Apple TV and then use it to control what’s going on. The key features are:
I’ve been using the developer betas of watchOS 11 for a while now and although it’s not a headline-grabbing, life-changing update there are lots of improvements like this throughout the new OS, and I keep encountering little improvements that I really like – so for example listening to podcasts in the car yesterday, the updated Smart Stack feature didn’t just give me a bland screen of basic controls but something much more visually attractive. There aresome important new health and fitness upgradestoo.
watchOS 11 is available now for the Apple Watch Series 6 onwards and all Apple Watch Ultra models. You can read our review of the newApple Watch Series 10if you’re in the market for an upgrade.
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir,Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock bandUnquiet Mind.
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