5 hidden features of your Apple TV remote

The Apple TV is often hailed as one of the best streaming devices on the market, and the Siri Remote is part of its offering. Across device generations, this controller, called the Apple TV remote in regions without Siri support, has stored a list of useful shortcuts.

While most of the shortcuts are useful to everyone, one of our recommendations is for tech enthusiasts., as it comes to Dev menus and deep technology settings buried in the operating system. They’re hidden for a reason, and entering the passcode on your Siri Remote to unlock that dashboard will only be beneficial if you know what you’re dealing with. Still, it’s helpful to know how to force quit apps if tvOS isn’t working efficiently, which is another handy trick you’ll be able to do with just a Siri remote.

Our list of hidden features is limited to five, but Apple is constantly improving and improving its software to implement new features. These are the most relevant hidden actions you can perform directly from your Apple TV remote.

Most streaming devices and smart TVs have accessibility settings. These are the types of customizations that can make a world of difference for hearing and visually impaired users, and any of these functions can be programmed onto your Siri Remote. It’s a tool called VoiceOver, and it’s Apple’s version of audio descriptions. When enabled, VoiceOver will read menus and text items you’ve highlighted in tvOS.

Go to Settings, select Accessibility, go to Accessibility Shortcut, and choose VoiceOver to map an on/off shortcut to your Apple TV remote. Now you will be able to toggle VoiceOver by pressing the Menu or Back button three times. You’ll also be able to switch between VoiceOver’s two navigation and explore modes, using two fingers to triple-tap the touch surface or the center of the clickpad on your remote. Navigation speaks the names of interface elements as you move through them, while explore selects the current element while allowing you to hear other surrounding elements.

You’ll also be able to swipe two fingers left or right on the clickpad or touch surface to access additional VoiceOver commands. These additional customizations appear in a VoiceOver rotor that you can navigate by rotating two fingers left or right. To exit the rotor, simply swipe left or right, or wait about three seconds.

You can force close Apple TV apps that you aren’t using, just like you would on other Apple devices. Instead of using the swipe up gesture to bring up the app switcher, as you would on iOS and iPadOS, double-tap the Home/TV button on your Siri Remote. This should bring up one or more windows, each representing an open application.

Use the Clickpad buttons to navigate between applications. You can also force quit an app by selecting it and dragging it up. If you just want to see what apps are open without closing anything, just press the Menu button to return to the tvOS Home screen. When a glitch or occasional crash occurs, forcing an app to close and relaunch is usually one of the quickest remedies. Apps running in the background may not use enough processing power to crash your Apple TV, but closing them won’t hurt either.

And if your Apple TV is really giving you app issues, you might want to restart your streaming device. A full reboot should clear the RAM, giving you a clean slate for apps and the UI. Simply unplug your Apple TV from power, wait about 30 seconds, then plug it back in. If you can still navigate the screens and menus on your Apple TV, you can also go to Settings, select System, and click Restart to perform a soft reset. You can also hold down the Menu and Home buttons until the front light on your Apple TV starts flashing.

Given that every generation of Siri Remote comes with a play/pause button, it’s probably no surprise that the device can control video playback. The essential remote shortcut that lets you quickly navigate through movies and TV shows is to press the play/pause button, then place your finger on the left or right side of the clickpad to rewind or fast forward.

But you can also browse media by rotating the clickpad with one finger clockwise or counterclockwise. If you’re using a Siri Remote without a clickpad, simply rest your finger on the touch surface, then use another finger to tap the left or right side of the touch area to scroll forward or backward. You can also quickly tap the left or right sides of the surface to switch between scan speeds or give playback commands to Siri, like “rewind 15 seconds” or “turn on subtitles.”

Unfortunately, tvOS’ cleanup shortcuts won’t work in all streaming apps. We found a few Reddit users saying they don’t have access to Siri cleaning in Amazon Prime Video. For the shortcut to work properly, the app you are using must support the tvOS player interface; otherwise, you will be forced to use the dashboard imagined by the developers.

Developer menus are often hidden to prevent casual users from accessing certain tools and functions, and the Apple TV is no exception. To unlock these hidden features built into tvOS, go to Settings, choose System and select Software Update. With the Update Software field highlighted, press the play/pause button on your Siri Remote four times in a row. If done correctly, an Internal Settings tab should appear.

There aren’t many additional settings to change in tvOS, and the AppleConnect option is only applicable to Apple employees. You will have the option to configure VPN profiles, as well as the ability to use the configuration function to manually modify the software. To hide the internal settings again, simply follow the same steps as described above. Generally speaking, this isn’t a tvOS menu that most people will need, but it’s still nice to know it’s there.

Interestingly, a similar remote shortcut will put your Apple TV into demo mode: select Settings, go to General, highlight About, then press play/pause four times. Although not very useful for the average user, demo mode allows you to adjust some playback settings, including video duration. To disable demo mode, simply repeat the previous steps.

This latest batch of shortcuts will be useful for experienced Apple TV users. Let’s say you’re using the Siri Remote with the tvOS keyboard: you can press the play/pause button to enable caps lock. And if you’ve entered a certain number of texts that you want to delete, just press the Siri button to erase everything. If you have a HomePod or other AirPlay-enabled speaker paired to your Apple TV, you can change how the streaming device outputs audio by pressing and holding the play/pause button on your Siri Remote. This shortcut instantly brings up the same audio dashboard, allowing you to quickly switch between TV speakers, a set of HomePod minis, and more.

One of the visual signatures of tvOS is the striking screen saver images used by Apple. Normally, screensavers take between two minutes and half an hour. appear, depending on your settings, but you can summon them instantly by double-tapping the Menu button.

Finally, there’s even a quick command to put your Apple TV to sleep. All you need to do is long-press the Home button for a second or two, and a screen should appear with the option to put your streaming device to sleep.