How to Control Android TV with Mac
I love my Android TV, and I love the convenience of being able to control the Android TV using my mobile phone, with the Android TV Remote app. One day my phone battery went dead and it got me thinking… if my phone can control the Android TV… could my computer do it too?
After exploring a few tutorials, here’s my no BS guide to controlling the Android TV with Mac.
Disclaimer: there are a few steps we have to do on the Android TV first. So you would either need to use the physical remote that came with the Android TV, or use the Android TV Remote app on mobile.
Step 1 — Activate ADB debugging mode
This is something that has to be done once on the Android TV device.
Go to Settings > Device Preferences > Information and we will scroll to the last option: Compilation.
Press OK on your remote 8 times to activate the Developer Options menu. When successfully activated, you will see a message that Developer options have been activated.
Press Back on your remote to return to previous menu. Scroll to the Developer options menu and press OK. Scroll to ADB Debugging and activate this option.
Step 2 — Find the IP address of your Android TV
Go to Settings > Network and Internet. Click on the network which you are connected to (the Android TV and your Mac should be in the same network/wi-fi). Make a note of the I.P. Address, we will be connecting to this.
You can also run a scan for all the I.P. addresses connected on the same network. Using Mac, run Terminal, and enter the below command.
arp -a
Step 3 — Install Scrcpy on your Mac
Scrcpy is an open source application which we will use to mirror the Android TV screen over to Mac. And we are then able to control the Android TV screen as well. If you want to check out the Scrcpy source code, https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
Using Mac, run Terminal, and enter the below command. (if you already have homebrew installed, you can skip this)
/bin/bash -c “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Still in Terminal, here’s the command to install Scrcpy
brew install scrcpy
Next, we have to install adb. Still using Terminal.
brew install android-platform-tools
Step 4— Connect to your Android TV and run Scrcpy!
Earlier, we recorded the I.P. address of your Android TV. Now we shall connect your Mac to your Android TV.
Using Mac, run Terminal, and enter the below command.
adb connect [ip-of-your-tv]
Example : adb connect 192.168.1.54
Your Android TV will now prompt a message to ask you for permission if you want to allow connection. Accept this.
Still in Terminal, here’s the command to run Scrcpy
scrcpy
Your Mac will open a window showing exactly what is on your Android TV.
You can use the keyboard to control
- up down left right arrows — self explanatory
- spacebar (or double-click) — this is the OK button
- esc (or right-click)— this is to the Back button
That’s pretty much it. Now you can use your Mac to control the Android TV.
For the next time you want to control, you can skip the setup steps and just run Step 4.
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