The Chromecast is one of the best devices Google has released, hands down. That little HDMI ‘skewer’ lets you give an old TV a second life and has been with us for a whopping ten years. In fact, Google has decided that this first Chromecast will no longer be supported from now on, although it will continue to work without problems for now.
In 2020 they gave the concept a twist thanks to Chromecast with Google TV. It was no longer just a device to which to send content from the mobile, tablet or PC, but a complete multimedia center with a complete operating system. The system is great, but the device has a weak point: the controller. It has few buttons, one of them is focused on YouTube (of course) and the other on Netflix. If it falls short, we are going to teach you how to change the buttons of the Chromecast Google TV to add the shortcuts that you want.
How to customize the Chromecast Google TV remote
The control of the new Chromecast has a minimalist design that some manufacturers such as Samsung are following on their televisions. It has few buttons, but they are enough to control both the system and some parameters of the television.
You can control the volume, mute the TV, turn it on or off, and change the input source. I, however, do not use either the volume controls or the input select buttonso they are buttons that are useless and are totally wasted in my unit.
Also, I have already mentioned that it has direct access to Netflix and… why Netflix? Well, the business case is clear, but it is very possible that you buy this device, you do not have Netflix and you are eating a button which, in your case, is worth absolutely nothing. That’s where the Button Mapper app comes into play.
It is an application that you can easily download from the Chromecast Play Store and that allows you to do what the name indicates: remap the buttons of your controller. On a TV with Android TV it’s useful because, really, there are tons of buttons you might not use, but on the Chromecast Google TV it makes perfect sense so you never go through the interface again.
Before I tell you how I have it, let’s go briefly with the how to change the function of the buttons on the chromecast remotealthough you also have a video just above in which I show the process:
- The first step is to download the app. As I said, you have it in the Play Store -this link- and you won’t have to look for an APK or anything like that. Install it and open it.
- When you do, it will automatically ask you for accessibility permissions. To grant them, go to ‘System’ ➝ ‘Accessibility’ ➝ scroll until you find ‘Button Mapper’. Activate the ‘Enable’ option and, as soon as you do, the app will open automatically.
- In the menu you will see several options, but the one we are interested in is ‘Add buttons’. Select it, press the select button on the controller again and a message will appear telling you to press the button you want to change.
- Here, you can press any button except the direction, selection, back or Google Assistant buttons. And that’s it, you can start playing around with the actions of the controller. If you ever want to delete a button’s actions, you need to go back to that remapping menu and select the little trash can icon that appears next to each button you’ve remapped.
It is a pity that the remote does not allow changing the function of the Google Assistant button, but nothing really happens because you can execute up to three actions with each of the customizable buttons. So, for example, in the Netflix button you can put the following configuration:
- One Touch HBO Max
- Two taps Apple TV+
- Press and hold Movistar+
In the mute button, for example, I have the cartoons with one press to open Disney+ and two for Crunchyrroll, and in the button to change the source I have direct access to all the installed applications with two presses (I have not touched the original function in case I use it at some point) and I open the Play Store with a long press.
oh! Sometime You may get a warning in Button Mapper that with the Pro version you can unlock more options, but you don’t really need to to enjoy the basics, which is simple remapping.
So, You already know that you can get more juice at the command of the Chromecast Google TV changing the function of the buttons. The agility when using the applications changes completely.
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