Controlling your TV with a simple wave of your hand may sound like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, but it’s actually a real feature already available on some consumer smartwatches. In fact, this is one of the useful Samsung Galaxy Watch tricks that you should not neglect. With a Galaxy Watch 4 or later, you can control a Samsung Smart TV (model 2025 or later) using the SmartThings app. The watch turns your hand into a cursor on the TV screen, which is controllable with hand gestures: waving your wrist moves the cursor, pinching your thumb and index finger to select an item, clenching your fist once returns to the previous screen, and clenching your fist twice goes to the home screen.
Google Pixel watches also come with TV remote functionality for Google Home compatible TVs. What you need is the Google Home app. Once set up, you can control media playback, volume and navigation with the on-screen buttons. You unfortunately can’t wave your hand to control the TV, but you can double pinch to play and pause playback.
But what if your smartwatch doesn’t have native remote control capabilities or your TV doesn’t support them? The good news is that you won’t need to buy a new watch or TV. There is a Wear OS app called WearMouse that lets you control your smart TV via Bluetooth. Here’s how it works.
What is WearMouse?
One of the essential Android smartwatch apps to install, WearMouse is an open-source Bluetooth mouse app for Wear OS smartwatches updated to at least Android P. It can pair with compatible Android smart TVs via Bluetooth and allows you to control an on-screen pointer on the TV by simply moving your hand. You can also perform basic mouse actions, like long-press and left, right, or middle click. Instead of a hand gesture, however, you will have to press the associated button on the smartwatch screen. The Air Mouse adjusts depending on whether you are using the smartwatch on your right or left wrist, or not wearing it at all. Simply select the configuration you are using.
Besides mouse mode, WearMouse offers three other input modes: touchpad, cursor keys, and keyboard. Touchpad mode converts the smartwatch screen into a basic laptop touchpad on which you can perform standard gestures. For example, you can slide your finger on the touchpad to move the pointer, use two fingers to scroll up and down, and tap to select. The cursor keys, on the other hand, provide you with a typical D-pad with additional hidden keys like Backspace, Space, Tab, and Esc. Finally, keyboard mode is as the name suggests: it shows you a normal QWERTY keyboard for typing on your TV.
In addition to Android TVs, WearMouse works with Android phones and tablets, as well as computers running major operating systems including Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspbian, and Chrome OS. It’s important to note that WearMouse doesn’t use your smartwatch’s built-in hand gesture capability, and the developer recommends turning it off when using the app to avoid input control conflicts.
How to set up and use WearMouse
WearMouse is one of the cool ways to use Bluetooth on your smart TV, and luckily it’s quite simple to set up. Follow these steps to do so:
- Make sure Bluetooth is turned on on your smartwatch and TV.
- Open the Play Store on your smartwatch.
- Search for WearMouse.
- Install it.
- Launch the app.
- Tap the arrow to get started.
- On the Paired Devices screen, go to Available Devices.
- Select your TV from the list to pair it.
- Once paired, tap your TV again.
- Choose Connect.
- Tap your preferred input method.
- When presented with instructions, simply tap the arrow to continue.
You can now control your Smart TV directly from your wrist. To switch to another input mode, swipe right or press a physical button on your smartwatch (not the crown). However, if you are in touchpad mode, you will instead have to place your palm on the screen to exit. To customize WearMouse’s behavior, go to the app settings. Here you will find options to keep the smartwatch connected to the TV when you minimize the app, enable diagonal movements in cursor key mode, stabilize the pointer and reduce the data rate.
