Methods for Controlling a Fire TV Stick without a Remote Control: With just a swipe, you can control your Fire TV Stick from your phone’s app (more on this in our other tutorial), meaning you don’t need to get a replacement if you use yours. On top of the obvious functionality of the app, you can also do more than just reproduce the experience of having a remote. You can manage your recordings, and in some cases (if you have access to live channels) you can even see what’s on those channels now right from the app. The way the remote works is through WiFi, so your phone will have to be connected to the same WiFi network as the Fire TV Stick, so be aware of that. One thing the app can’t do is act as a remote for playing games. This is a bit of a bummer since most games on mobile devices have no problem using the touch screen for input and so you’d think it would be easy to reproduce those controls on the Fire TV App. Typing on your smartphone screen is way easier and faster than the single-character-select method that still hamstrings text input on most TVs. The App is worth using if you’re going to be doing much text input, even if you do have the original remote. If you have a new Fire TV Stick and you’re about to spend a half-hour logging into all your favorite apps, use the Fire TV App to streamline putting in all those usernames and passwords.
Use Your TV’s Remote Control with HDMI CEC Enabled
A really neat trick would be to control your Fire TV Stick with the remote control that came with your TV, right? Well, luckily there’s a modern HDMI standard that aims to add this functionality into the HDMI system. It seems too good to be true, but if you have the right hardware this method can “just work” in a really impressive way. We have a separate article on what CEC means in the world of HDMI, but the long and short of it is that CEC, or Consumer Electronics Control, is a standard which allows one of the pins on the HDMI cable to be used to transmit controls or user inputs up and down the HDMI cable. So, if your TV has CEC enabled, and the HDMI cable is compatible (almost all of them are now), and the HDMI is going to another device with CEC capabilities like a Receiver or Soundbar, then there will be an unbroken chain of control from the TV to the Fire TV Stick. To set the system up this way, you’d connect the Fire TV Stick to the back of the receiver or soundbar that has CEC enabled, and then when you swap to that HDMI input, your remote should magically be able to work. Not all the buttons will do what you expect, but the simple inputs like navigation errors, select, and back should all be able to allow you to navigate the system simply. Be sure to reference the above-linked article – CEC can go by several different names, and the most modern iteration is referred to as ARC or eARC, so, if you want to know if you can pull this off, look for HDMI ARC and HDMI eARC capable soundbars and receivers like we have on our guide in the 7 best soundbars with eARC.
Use a Compatible Universal Remote Control
There’s also the classic route of getting a universal control. This is a great option because you won’t have to figure out any HDMI standards like the above discussed CEC or otherwise be beholden to HDMI tricks to get the one-remote effect. Universal remotes are the original brute-force option of synchronizing all your devices to one remote, but how do you know if a given remote works with the Fire TV Stick?
Using the Sideclick to Add Extra Functions to the Fire TV Remote
It has an IR blaster and is super simple to set up and train with the existing remotes. So as you plan your next step in how to control your Fire TV Stick, be sure to quickly peruse Sideclick’s product page to see if it’s something you’d like.
