I swear, the Apple TV remote is designed specifically to slide between the cushions and fall into the black hole of the sofa. The remote control is small, thin and so smooth. But I have great news. Today, during Apple’s 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference, a quick mention brought hope to my life. Siri will soon be able to find your lost Apple TV remote.
Details are light at the moment. It’s unclear which Apple TV and iPhone models will get this feature. It’s also not clear exactly how the system will work. Will the Apple TV Remote beep? Will the iPhone show an arrow like when it finds the nearest Airtag? And does this system work specifically with Siri, or will remotes be added to the Find My app with the rest of the owner’s Apple products?
I still don’t have the answers to these important questions.
This feature has been requested by users for a long time. Apple isn’t alone in designing small, easily lost remote controls. Everyone from Roku to Google ships little remotes with their streaming (I’ve lost track of them all). Remember those old Comcast remotes with 500 buttons? In 2009, a TechCrunch writer called them Fisher Price remotes, which is somewhat accurate. Those remotes were terrible, but at least they were hard to lose.
This feature will be added to Apple TV in an upcoming fall update.