Better Remote for Mac ... for Apple TV

For the last few months, I've been iterating on an Apple TV remote app for Mac called Better Remote. It's free for now, and it has made me use my Apple TV 4K way more than ever. Better Remote makes tvOS feel like another window I can control from my Mac.

Better Remote is on the Mac App Store. Give it a download and let me know how it goes.

One catch: the way I run Better Remote isn't allowed in the Mac App Store. When Better Remote is the window in focus, I use my Mac's media keys, including play/pause and volume, to control the Apple TV. I made a standalone helper that adds the feature.

There's also a TestFlight version with macOS 27 Golden Gate considerations.

Some cool things in Better Remote

You can rename Apple TVs inside Better Remote without changing the device name itself. That's useful for those “(1)” situations, and for times when HomePod means you need a different name.

The app sidebar lets you favorite apps, but you can also hide apps like Computer and Arcade. Right-clicking, or two-finger tapping, the TV picker opens or closes both side panels.

YouTube videos playing on Apple TV can open on Mac at the current timestamp, and you can send YouTube URLs from your clipboard to Apple TV. Keyboard navigation is pretty thorough too, plus there are options to tone down YouTube titles in the Now Playing panel, including caps-lock titles and emoji.

The menu bar icon has options too. I use a regular click to toggle play/pause and a right-click to send a click to Apple TV, which is great for skipping ads.

Mousing over the Now Playing bar shows start and end times of day, like on Apple TV. The six main buttons and four directional buttons also have optional trackpad haptics.

Pretty, pretty good.

For now, I mostly just want people to benefit from Better Remote like I have. If anything doesn't work, let me know. Iterating on it on nights and weekends in June, July, and August has been super rewarding.