Your Hisense
Remote, Now on
Your iPhone.

Phone and TV need to be on the same Wi-Fi. Open the app — it scans your network and shows your TV by name in about 5 seconds, then tap to connect. The exact last step depends on your TV's platform:

• VIDAA and Roku TVs trust any device on their network — no PIN, no confirmation, you're in.
• Google TVs show a 4-digit PIN on screen the first time — type it into the app once, then your phone is paired forever.
• Fire TVs show an "Allow this phone to control the TV?" prompt the first time — confirm it once and you're done.

From scan to first button press, ~30 seconds is realistic. After the first pairing, reconnecting is instant whenever your phone is on the same Wi-Fi.

Yes — your phone and the TV must be on the same Wi-Fi network. The app talks to the TV directly over your home LAN using whatever local control protocol the TV exposes (ECP for Roku, mDNS-based for VIDAA, the Android TV remote protocol for Google TV, ADM for Fire TV). There's no cloud relay in the loop.

Two practical implications: cellular won't work even if you're standing in the same room as the TV, and guest Wi-Fi networks usually isolate devices from each other — the phone reaches the internet fine but can't see the TV. Hotel Wi-Fi has the same problem.

In rough order of likelihood:

1. Phone and TV are on different Wi-Fi networks. Including the same SSID's 5GHz band when the TV is on 2.4GHz only, or guest Wi-Fi vs. main, or a work-VLAN your phone joined automatically.
2. Router has "AP isolation" or "client isolation" turned on. Common on hotel, café and some shared-house networks. The phone can reach the internet but other devices on the same Wi-Fi are invisible. Mesh routers (eero, Google Wifi, Orbi) usually don't have this on by default.
3. TV's "mobile app control" setting is disabled. Look under Settings → Network or System → Advanced (the menu name varies by platform).
4. The router needs a kick. Restarting the router fixes about one in five "TV not showing up" reports we get.

If none of those work, drop us an email with your TV model and what you've tried — we usually have a more specific fix.

Mostly yes, depending on the platform:

• VIDAA and Roku TVs don't ask for any confirmation, so you don't need the original remote at all — just open the app and pair.
• Google TV and Fire TV show a one-time confirmation prompt on the screen. The TV's onboard power button doubles as "OK" on most Hisense models, or you can plug in a USB keyboard and press Enter to accept. After that first confirmation, the phone is paired forever and you never need physical access again.

If you genuinely lost the remote and you're stuck on the confirmation screen, see our guide on what to do when your Hisense remote is gone — there's a method per platform.

Yes, every time. The app talks to the TV directly over Wi-Fi, which means your phone has to be on the same local network as the TV whenever you want to use it. No cellular fallback, no remote-from-office, no controlling your home TV from a hotel room.

This is deliberate. Local-only means your button presses don't route through a server we run, which is faster (no round-trip latency) and means we don't see what channel you switched to or which app you opened. The downside is exactly what you're asking about — you have to be home.

Yes, as many as you want. The app remembers every TV it's paired with, indexed by MAC address, so you can switch between bedroom, living room, kitchen, garage, etc. with one tap in the device picker at the top of the remote screen.

Adding a new TV is the same flow as the first one — open the app while on the new TV's Wi-Fi, it discovers, you tap. You can mix platforms freely on one phone: VIDAA in the living room, Roku in the bedroom, Google TV in the kitchen — the app figures out which protocol to use per device.