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Google Cast guides
Chromecast and Cast-built-in TVs — playback, volume and what casting can and can't do.
Casting and remote control get treated as the same thing, and they aren't. Casting hands a stream to a Chromecast or a Cast-enabled TV and lets the phone control that one playback session — play, pause, volume. It was never built to open the TV's menus, switch its input, or drive an app the phone didn't start.
Tivi, a universal TV remote app for iPhone from Nefarius Apps, finds Cast devices on the network the same way it finds everything else. A plain Chromecast, or a TV whose only link to the phone is Cast, is where it stops today: the device is listed but not sent commands. Anything running Google TV is different — a Chromecast with Google TV, or a TV with Google TV built in, also exposes the Android TV Remote service, and Tivi controls it through that, alongside Samsung Tizen and LG webOS.
Start with casting is not remote control for the full distinction.