The Universal Remote Is Streaming’s Most Tragic Casualty
- Universal remotes promised to simplify controlling TV entertainment centers. Then streaming happened.
Remote.gif
The living room was a very different place before apps. TVs used to ship with more than one physical switch or button, you frequently needed a receiver if you wanted to use multiple home theater appliances at once, and juggling all of the various components of your living room usually fell to a remote.
The universal remote, with its programmable buttons and routines, was the savior of complicated setups, but one that, thanks to streaming boxes, the rise of streaming services, and the mass adoption of smart TVs, doesn’t really have much of a place in most homes in 2023.
But hangers-on exist even if remotes have been replaced with casting protocols and pack-in flingers with paid product placement buttons. Companies are still making universal remotes, and the faithful are miraculously still buying them.
ezgif-5-a4e8f94db1.jpg
ezgif-5-b37f166613.jpg
ezgif-5-f954b1a8e9.gif
https://www.inverse.com/tech/univers...=pocket-newtab