Auxility Remote for Roku TV
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ROKU REMOTE KEYBOARD

A Real Keyboard for Your Roku, Free on Your iPhone.

Passwords, searches and logins take forty presses on a D-Pad and seconds on a phone. The keyboard is a free feature of Auxility Remote — open it and type.

Get it free on the App Store How it works

Works over Wi-Fi · no pairing · no original remote required

The short answer

Your iPhone is already the Roku keyboard you are missing. Tap the keyboard icon in Auxility Remote and everything you type is delivered to the focused text field on the TV over Wi-Fi, letter by letter, as you go — searches, Wi-Fi passwords, channel logins. Typing is part of the free tier, needs no pairing and no code, and mistakes are fixable: delete on the phone removes the character on the screen.

Entering the word "documentary" with a directional pad means walking an on-screen grid for roughly forty presses; a Wi-Fi password with mixed case and symbols is worse, because the grid keeps switching layers. This guide covers how phone typing reaches the TV, which text fields accept it, why two famous channel apps are the exception, and what the Apple Watch adds when the phone is in another room.

Diagnose it

Where phone typing works, and where it cannot

Remote text input lands wherever the Roku exposes a focused text field. The behaviour differs by screen, and knowing which one you are on explains what you see.

Screen on the TVWhat phone typing doesWhy
Roku SearchEvery letter appears as you type it, results narrow liveThe system search field accepts remote text input directly.
Wi-Fi password entry, PIN and login screens of the Roku OS itselfFull typing incl. mixed case and symbolsSystem fields are standard text targets; the grid keyboard on screen is just their fallback.
Most channel apps' search and login fieldsTyping lands normallyChannels that use the platform text field inherit remote input for free.
YouTube and Netflix login/searchLetters may be ignored or behave oddlyThese two draw their own on-screen keyboards, which do not listen to remote text input; use the D-Pad there or log in via the channel's web activation flow.
A screen with no focused text fieldNothing happensThere is no target: typing needs a field with focus, the same rule the physical remote follows.

Step by step

How to fix it: Roku Remote Keyboard.

Each step takes seconds. No original remote, no pairing code, no account required.

  1. Connect to your Roku

    Open Auxility Remote on the same Wi-Fi network as the TV and pick your device from the list. The keyboard sends text to whichever Roku is selected, so this is the one prerequisite.

  2. Put a text field in focus on the TV

    Navigate to the search box or password field with the D-Pad, exactly as you would before typing on the TV grid. A blinking cursor on screen means the field is ready to receive.

  3. Tap the keyboard icon and type

    The standard iPhone keyboard slides up. Each character travels to the TV the moment you press it, so you watch the field fill as you type — no send button, no batch paste.

  4. Fix mistakes from the phone

    Delete on the iPhone removes the last character on the TV. If the field looks out of sync, clear it on the TV once and retype — the connection itself does not reorder characters.

How a letter travels from phone to screen

Each keypress is delivered over your home network as its own remote command — the same channel the physical remote uses, which is why nothing needs pairing. Accented and non-Latin characters survive the trip intact, so a French password or a Ukrainian search phrase types as written.

Because delivery is per character, the TV shows your text growing live rather than receiving it in one paste, and whatever autocomplete you use on the iPhone works: the TV only ever sees the final characters.

Why the keyboard is free when voice is not

Typing is the feature you reach for when the physical remote is lost or the batteries are dead, and locking it would make the app useless at exactly the moment people install it. So the keyboard ships in the free tier alongside the D-Pad.

Voice search, casting and screen mirroring are the PRO extras; if you never buy them, the keyboard keeps working.

Typing from the Apple Watch

The Watch app carries the same text route: type on the small keyboard or dictate, and the words land in the focused field on the TV.

When your iPhone is nearby the Watch relays through it; when it is not, the Watch talks to the Roku over Wi-Fi directly — useful when the phone is charging in another room and the TV is asking for a password.

The keyboard on each kind of Roku

Roku TV (TCL, Hisense, Sharp, onn and other licensees)
System fields — search, network passwords, store logins — all accept phone typing. Panel brand makes no difference: the text route is part of Roku OS, not of the television.
Roku Streaming Stick and Express
Identical behaviour. The stick owns the text field, so even a hotel TV in HDMI mode takes your typing once the stick is connected to Wi-Fi.
Roku Ultra and Streambar
Same text route. On models whose own remote has no keyboard shortcut, the phone is the only way to type at all without the on-screen grid.
Apple Watch
Both dictation and the scribble keyboard reach the same field the iPhone does; the Watch route works with or without the phone in range.

Technical reference

Typing on Roku: the technical picture

How remote text input is delivered and where its boundaries are.

Technical detail for this guide. You never need any of it to use the app — it is published so the page can be checked against the real behaviour of the device.
Detail Value
Delivery Character by character as ECP Lit_<char> keypresses over the local network; each character is percent-encoded per UTF-8, so accents and non-Latin scripts arrive intact.
Correction Delete maps to the ECP Backspace keypress, removing the last character in the focused field.
Tier Free. Keyboard typing ships in the free tier; voice search is the PRO feature built on the same delivery route.
Known exception YouTube (channel id 837) and Netflix (channel id 12) render custom keyboards that ignore remote text input; the confirm key there types a letter instead of submitting.
Compatibility Every Roku OS device on the same Wi-Fi: Roku TV panels from TCL, Hisense, Sharp and onn, Streaming Stick, Express, Ultra, Streambar.
Latency One keypress per character means a long paste is not instant; typing speed on the phone is the practical ceiling, and the field fills visibly as you go.
Devices covered Every Roku OS device on the same Wi-Fi: Roku TV panels from TCL, Hisense, Sharp and onn., Streaming Stick, Express, Ultra and Streambar — the text route belongs to Roku OS, not to the panel brand.

Common questions

Roku Remote Keyboard — your questions answered.

Is the keyboard free or paid?
Free. Typing is part of the free tier together with the D-Pad; the paid PRO tier adds voice search, casting and mirroring. You can type into searches and passwords without ever seeing the paywall.
Why does typing do nothing in YouTube or Netflix?
Those two apps draw their own on-screen keyboards instead of using the platform text field, and custom keyboards do not listen to remote text input. Use the D-Pad inside them, or their web activation flow for logins — every other system field takes phone typing normally.
Do I need to pair the phone or enter a code first?
No. Typing rides the same local-network channel as every other remote command, so the only requirements are the same Wi-Fi and a selected device. The first Roku connection may ask you to accept the app on the TV once; after that the keyboard is one tap away.
Can I paste a whole password from my password manager?
Yes — paste into the phone keyboard and the characters are delivered in order, one keypress each. A very long string takes a moment to land because delivery is per character, and you can watch the field fill on the TV.
Does typing work from the Apple Watch without the iPhone?
Yes. The Watch talks to the Roku over Wi-Fi directly when the phone is out of range, and relays through the iPhone when it is near. Dictation and the Watch keyboard land in the same focused field.

Free download

Take control of your Roku in seconds.

Auxility Remote replaces the remote over Wi-Fi the moment your iPhone joins the same network. No pairing code, no account, no original remote needed.

Download on the App Store

An independent app by Auxility, Inc. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Roku, Inc. Roku is a trademark of Roku, Inc., used only to indicate device compatibility.

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