Auxility Remote for Roku TV
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ROKU VOICE REMOTE

Turn Your iPhone Into a Roku Voice Remote.

Spelling titles with a D-Pad is slow. Auxility Remote adds voice search over Wi-Fi, so you speak a show and the Roku runs the query on screen.

Get it free on the App Store How it works

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

The short answer

You do not need a Roku voice remote to search by voice. Auxility Remote captures speech on your iPhone, works out whether you asked for a command, a channel or a search, and acts on the Roku over Wi-Fi — for a search it opens Roku Search and types the phrase out letter by letter. Voice control is a PRO feature; the rest of the remote, including keyboard typing, is free.

Spelling "Nathan Fielder" with a directional pad takes about forty presses, which is why voice search is the single feature people miss most when their remote turns out to be the model without a microphone. This guide covers how voice works when the microphone is in your phone rather than the remote, what the app does with what you say, and where the approach differs from Roku's own voice remote.

Diagnose it

What happens to each thing you say

A dictated phrase resolves to one of three outcomes. Knowing which one you triggered explains the behaviour you see on the TV.

What you sayHow it resolvesWhat happens on the TV
"Volume up", "go home", "mute"CommandThe matching keypress fires immediately and the voice sheet stays open, so you can hold and speak the next command without reopening it.
"Open Netflix", "launch YouTube"Channel launchThe channel opens on the Roku, the app confirms, and the sheet closes on its own.
"Nathan Fielder", "documentaries about bees"SearchRoku Search opens and the phrase is typed into it character by character, then the sheet closes so you can pick a result with the D-Pad.
Nothing recognisable, or silenceNo actionThe app does not guess. Release and speak again rather than letting a half-heard phrase drive the TV.
A phrase spoken while the sheet is closingCancelledDismissing the sheet cancels any typing still in progress, so a swipe away mid-phrase does not leave half a search on screen.

Step by step

How to fix it: Roku Voice Remote.

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

  1. Connect to the Roku first

    Open Auxility Remote on the same Wi-Fi and select your device. Voice needs a target: the phrase is resolved on the phone, but the resulting action is sent to whichever Roku is currently selected.

  2. Allow microphone access once

    The first time you tap the microphone, iOS asks for permission. Grant it and the prompt does not return; decline it and voice is the only part of the app that stops working.

  3. Hold the microphone and speak

    Voice is push-to-talk rather than always-listening: press and hold the microphone orb, say your phrase, and release. Nothing is captured when your finger is not on the button.

  4. Let the app decide what you meant

    A phrase that matches a control becomes a keypress. A phrase naming a channel launches it. Anything else is treated as a search, which opens Roku Search and types the words in for you.

  5. Finish with the D-Pad

    Once results are on screen, use the directional pad and OK to open the one you want, or hold the microphone again to refine the query. Voice and the full button set share the same screen.

Why the microphone belongs in the phone

Roku splits its remotes into models with a microphone and models without, and which one is in your living room was decided by whichever bundle you happened to buy. Replacing a non-voice remote to get voice search is an expensive way to solve a search problem.

Putting the microphone in the phone sidesteps the split entirely. The device you already own has a far better microphone than any remote, it is already in your hand, and it works with every Roku on the network regardless of what remote that Roku shipped with.

How a spoken title becomes a search on screen

There is no cloud voice service in the path. Speech is turned into text on the phone, and the app then decides what the text means: a control word becomes a keypress, a channel name becomes a launch, and anything else is treated as something to search for.

For a search, the app opens Roku Search and then types the phrase into it one character at a time, the same way the keyboard feature does. This is why the words appear to be typed rather than pasted, and why a long title takes a moment to land. It is also why it works on any Roku: it uses the ordinary search screen rather than a voice service the device may not have.

Where the typing route hits a wall

Roku's own search screen and its sign-in fields accept text properly, so a spoken query lands cleanly there. Some streaming apps run their own on-screen keyboards instead, and those behave differently: characters and backspace are honoured, but there is no reliable "submit" key, because the confirm key gets interpreted as selecting whatever letter tile is highlighted.

The app handles that honestly. In apps known to own their keyboard, notably YouTube and Netflix, it types the phrase and then stops, leaving you to choose a result with the directional pad instead of firing a key that would type a stray letter. It is a small manual step, and it is the difference between reliable and nearly-working.

Voice on each kind of Roku

Roku TV
Full range of outcomes. Volume and mute commands land directly on the panel, channel launches open on the TV, and searches go through the standard Roku Search screen.
Roku Streaming Stick and Express
Navigation, channel launches and search all work identically. Volume commands depend on the TV rather than the stick, so "volume up" may need to reach the television by another route.
Roku Ultra and Streambar
The same behaviour, with the best chance that spoken volume commands land directly since these devices are more likely to own their own audio path.
A Roku whose remote already has a microphone
Nothing conflicts. The hardware voice remote keeps working; the app is simply a second microphone that does not need to be found down the side of the sofa.

Technical reference

Voice control: the technical picture

What the app does with a spoken phrase, and how the resulting action reaches the device.

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
Capture model Push-to-talk. Recording runs only while the microphone orb is held; releasing it ends capture and resolves the phrase.
Resolution outcomes COMMAND (fires an ECP keypress, sheet stays open) · LAUNCH (opens the channel, auto-dismisses) · SEARCH (opens Roku Search, types the phrase, auto-dismisses).
How search text is delivered Character by character as ECP Lit_<char> keypresses, percent-encoded per UTF-8 so accented and non-Latin characters survive the URL intact.
Known keyboard exception YouTube (app id 837) and Netflix (app id 12) own their on-screen keyboards. Lit_ and Backspace are honoured; Enter is deliberately withheld because it selects the highlighted letter tile instead of submitting.
Unknown foreground app If the active-app lookup fails, the app treats the context as unknown and withholds Enter rather than risk the mis-route. Conservative by design.
Cancellation Dismissing the sheet cancels any in-flight typing task, so a swipe-away mid-phrase stops sending keypresses at the Roku.
Tier PRO. Keyboard typing, which solves the same "spelling with a D-Pad" problem more slowly, is free.
Devices covered Any Roku on the local network, with or without a voice remote of its own: Roku TVs (TCL, Hisense, onn., Philips, RCA), Streaming Stick, Express, Ultra, Streambar.

Common questions

Roku Voice Remote — your questions answered.

How does voice search work if my Roku remote has no microphone?
The microphone is your iPhone's. You hold the button in the app and speak; the phrase is converted to text on the phone, and the resulting action is sent to the Roku over Wi-Fi. Whether the remote in your drawer has a microphone makes no difference.
Is voice control free in Auxility Remote?
No, voice control is part of PRO. The free tier includes iPhone-keyboard typing, which solves the same problem of spelling titles with a directional pad, just without speaking. The paywall appears when you tap the microphone, so nothing is hidden.
Can I say commands as well as search terms?
Yes, and the app tells them apart. Phrases like "volume up" or "go home" fire the matching key and leave the voice sheet open so you can keep going. "Open Netflix" launches the channel. Anything else is treated as a search.
Why does my spoken search not run automatically in YouTube?
YouTube and Netflix use their own on-screen keyboards, where the confirm key selects whichever letter tile is highlighted rather than submitting the query. The app types the phrase and then stops on purpose, so you pick a result with the D-Pad instead of ending up with a stray letter in the box.
Is the app always listening?
No. There is no wake word and no background listening. Recording starts when you press and hold the microphone and stops the instant you let go, and dismissing the sheet cancels anything still in progress.

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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