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Samsung · LG · Roku · Google TV · Fire TV · Vizio
The remote
your TV lost.
Zapp turns your iPhone into the actual remote for your television — over your own Wi-Fi, every button working for free, on every TV in the house.
One payment of $9.99. Never a subscription.
Free to use. One-time Pro unlock optional.
Brand-matched
Three TVs. Three different remotes.
One app.
Zapp reads the brand and model and loads the remote that matches it — layout, keys, even the colour. These are real screens from the app, not mock-ups.
The category has a problem
Remote apps got greedy.
This one didn’t.
Weekly subscriptions, paywalls before the first connection, buttons that do nothing. Every line on the left is a real habit of the best-selling remote apps. Every line on the right is how Zapp behaves.
Most remote apps
Zapp
A generic grid, identical for every TV
Your exact model’s remote, in its colour
Buttons that look real and do nothing
Every key checked against your TV. None are dead
Often $5–10 a week, forever
$9.99 once — and only if you want the extras
The second TV is a paywall
Every TV in the house, free
Ads between you and the pause button
No ads, no account, no data collected
Keyboard and voice · Pro
Type it.
Don’t arrow it.
Where the TV opens a text field, your phone keyboard fills it instead of nudging one letter at a time across the TV’s alphabet grid. On LG and Google TV, the keyboard opens by itself the moment the television asks for text. Or say it: on a Roku your words go straight into its search. Some apps draw their own keyboard — YouTube on a Samsung, for one — and a TV doesn’t let a phone type into those.
Without opening the app
The remote follows you
out of the app.
Leave the remote open and it stays on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island: volume, mute and play/pause. Give each TV its own widget, put TV controls in Control Center or on the Action Button, or just ask Siri. All of it is free.
- Siri and Shortcuts. Turn the TV off, pause, mute or change the volume, on whichever TV you name. Turning it on from standby works on Samsung, LG and Roku (Pro).
- Control Center and the Action Button. TV power, mute, volume and channel, each set to the TV you choose. Needs iOS 18.
- Apple Watch. The Digital Crown is the volume knob, with a direction pad and a switcher for your TVs.
- iPad. The remote and the extra keys side by side.
The Lock Screen and Home Screen above are drawings of Zapp’s Live Activity and widgets, not photos of a phone.
Real inputs
HDMI 1 is your console.
It says so.
The Sources list is read from the television itself — real inputs, with the names your TV gives them, and an honest “nothing connected” on the empty ones. Not a blind toggle that cycles and hopes.
Pricing
Free.
The whole button remote, on every TV you own, forever. That is not a trial — it is the product.
$9.99 once
unlocks six extras, on all your devices, for good:
- Keyboard. Type with your phone instead of hunting letter by letter, wherever the TV accepts typed text. Apps that draw their own keyboard, like YouTube on a Samsung, can’t be typed into.
- Voice search. Say what you want to watch. Roku opens its own search with your words; other TVs get them typed into the search you’ve opened. Recognised on your iPhone.
- App shortcuts. Open your TV’s apps in one tap: every app with its icon on Roku and LG, the popular streaming apps on Samsung and Vizio, a fixed list of popular apps on Google TV.
- Turn on your TV. Wake a Samsung, LG or Roku TV that’s in standby, without getting up. An LG needs “Mobile TV On” switched on, and one connection first.
- LG pointer. Move the LG Magic Remote pointer by dragging on your phone.
- Phone volume buttons. The buttons on the side of your iPhone turn the TV up and down while the remote is open.
Which of them a TV can use depends on the brand. Pro, brand by brand.
NEVER · A · SUBSCRIPTION
Questions
Asked before buying.
Answered straight.
Which TVs does Zapp work with?
Samsung smart TVs from 2016 onwards, LG webOS TVs, Roku TVs and players, Google TV and Android TV, Fire TV, and Vizio SmartCast TVs. Sony, TCL, Philips and similar brands work on their Google TV and Android TV models. Your iPhone and the television have to be on the same Wi-Fi network.
Is there a subscription?
No. The whole button remote is free on every TV you own, and so are the widgets, Control Center, Siri and Apple Watch. One optional payment of $9.99 adds a keyboard, voice search, app shortcuts, turning on a Samsung, LG or Roku TV from standby, the LG Magic Remote pointer, and using your iPhone’s volume buttons. There is no subscription anywhere in the app.
Does it work with an old TV that is not smart?
No. Zapp talks to the television over Wi-Fi, so the TV has to be a network-connected smart TV. An iPhone has no infrared, so no iPhone app can control a TV that only accepts an infrared remote.
Does it work with Apple TV?
No, and you do not need it to: every iPhone already includes an Apple TV remote in Control Centre, from Apple. If your Apple TV is plugged into a Samsung or LG television, Zapp still controls the television itself — power, volume and input.
Can it turn the TV on?
On Samsung, LG and Roku TVs, yes, once the TV has been paired and if it is in network standby — from the app or by asking Siri. That is one of the Pro features. An LG needs its “Mobile TV On” setting switched on. Google TV, Fire TV and Vizio can’t be woken this way (a Vizio in Quick Start mode turns on with the free Power key). A television that has never been paired cannot be paired while it is fully off; that is a hardware limit, not an app limit.
Does it work on iPad and Apple Watch?
Yes. Zapp is one app for iPhone and iPad, with its own iPad layout, and it comes with an Apple Watch app: turn the Digital Crown for volume, use the direction pad, and switch between your TVs from the watch.
What data does Zapp collect?
None. There is no account, no analytics, no ads, and no server: the app never contacts us at all. It only talks to televisions on your local network.
Samsung · LG · Roku · Google TV · Fire TV · Vizio
Your iPhone already is
the better remote.
iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch · iOS 17 or later