Apple’s new TV Remote app to offer trackpad gestures

Apple‘s already revealed plans for a new Apple TV Remote app with support for Siri voice controls. Now it turns out the software will include another awesome feature that makes it even easier to control your TV from an iOS device.

According to Apple execs Eddie Cue and Craig Federighi, the upcoming app will also offer gesture controls similar to the way the new remote’s touchpad works. “The trackpad function of the remote can be done with your phone now too with that remote so it’s really a full replacement,” Federighi explained in a Daring Fireball podcast published on Friday.

The new gesture controls work with games designed for tvOS, making it easy to offer multi-player gaming on the 4th generation Apple TV. “You can use the Apple TV remote for one person and their phone for the second person,” said Cue.

Apple’s software and services chief also confirmed that the new app would arrive within the next few months, suggesting it’s still on track for a release in the first half of 2016. Based on this latest news it sounds like a pretty great improvement over the current Remote app, which is mostly just useful for entering text.

You can listen to the entire podcast, which covers plenty of other Apple-related subjects including Tim Cook’s infamous Super Bowl photo, via the source link below.