Bluetooth, GPS, microUSB, 3G… are common connections on any smartphone worth its salt. What is more unusual today is to find one of the classic ports of another era. We refer to the one dedicated to infrared communication, a feature that was given in generations prior to the profusion of Bluetooth and that surely the most experienced users will remember because thanks to it it was possible to exchange tones and ringtones with other phones of friends and family. Today this technology has been presented again to colonize among high-end smart phones, although with different objectives. In this case, it serves to expand the functions of the device and transform it into auniversal remote control.
And it is that among the aspirations of every smartphone has always been to serve as a remote control to manage the TV in the living room, the stereo or the Home Cinema. But to do this, they had to use the Bluetooth connection or Wi-Fi sensors, when not all home multimedia devices are equipped with this wireless port. That is why the presence of the infrared port on the Samsung Galaxy S4 was, once explained, so suggestive. And thanks to the pre-installed WatchOn app, the possibilities reach great odds.
Let's see what we have to do to control our television with the Samsung Galaxy S4 acting as a remote control. The first thing, logically, is to open the application that we have indicated. If we have not configured its operation, we will come across a screen that has, as the only option, the one that invites us to select the country or region in which we will use the Samsung Galaxy S4 app .
In this way, we will enter a series of data that the system will request from us and then the television service providers to which we are subscribed. Once completed, we will have in front of us a screen with a list of channels and, in the upper area of the interface, several selectable options. In the margin to the right of this margin we will see a small icon that represents a remote control. Let's click on it.
There we have the remote control configurator. The pop-up window that will appear will display a couple of buttons. The one on the right takes us to the customization menu itself. The first thing we will have to do is select the brand of our television or projector. After this, we will verify that the simplicity of the process is such that just by pressing the WatchOn power button, the Samsung Galaxy S4 will communicate with the screen and, after a few seconds, it will be activated.
In case that does not happen, the application will give us the option of resending the code with which it has communicated or trying another one in the spectrum. In case the task is successful, we only have to indicate that the process has been carried out correctly. With this, our Samsung Galaxy S4 will already be configured to function as a remote control for the TV, using a touch interface that, although less complete than the dedicated remote control that the screen came with, is fully functional.
