Kodi is one of the best free media players available for PC and smartphone, free, which owes much of its success to its presence in the Chinese TV Boxes, to its open nature (the program is open source, therefore open source) and in particular to plugins, which allow any user to customize the multimedia experience by adding new features. As already written in the past, with Kodi every PC becomes a multimedia player also for TV .
Using Kodi on a TV Box or PC with monitor, how can we control it remotely without having to use the keyboard and mouse "> Guide to get started with Kodi: configuration and adding content
Configure Kodi for remote control
Before seeing which apps we can use for remote control we have to prepare Kodi to receive the commands remotely, otherwise any app used will not work properly.
If we have not already done so, we download Kodi for free on the PC, on the TV Box or on any other compatible device using the link here -> Kodi .
Installed the media player on the chosen device, let's start it to find ourselves in the introductory screen, completely similar to the one below.
To enable remote control, we tap or use the mouse to open the gear symbol, which will open the settings panel.
In the menu that opens we click or tap on Service Settings, then go to the Control submenu to configure all the items indicated by the arrows in the image below.
We enable the item Allow remote control via HTTP, the item Allow remote control from other applications on other devices, the item Allow remote control from other applications on this device and enter a username and password of your choice in the homonymous fields.
Now the remote control for Kodi is enabled, just write down the port number used for the remote control service (base is 8080 and there is no reason to change it unless you already use this port) and the IP address of the PC, TV Box or device in which Kodi is started (for example if the PC has an IP address 192.168.1.3, we will have to store this address together with the port number used).
Remember that Kodi must remain started in order to be controlled remotely, otherwise the apps will not be able to see it even if you configure everything correctly.
App for remote control
After configuring Kodi to accept remote controls from another device, let's discover together the best free apps to control Kodi remotely via a smartphone.
The only prerequisite is that the smartphone and the device where Kodi is present are connected to the same WiFi network or in any case to the same modem, so as to be able to "see" within the network (for example if the TV Box is connected via Ethernet cable and the smartphone is connected via WiFi, you can still control Kodi remotely).
1) Kore, Official Remote for Kodi (Android)
The first app that we can use to control Kodi remotely is Kore, the official app available only for Android, developed by the same authors as the media player and available for download here -> Kore .
This app will allow you to control the navigation within the Kodi menus and contents, start or stop the playback of any content, increase the volume, go to the next or previous chapter, insert text in the search fields (when they appear on the screen) using the smartphone keyboard, view the covers and information obtained from Kodi for all the films and contents indexed and other advanced features such as activating the subtitles, changing audio streams (in files with multiple audio streams), adjusting the delay for synchronize speech and images and manage playlists for content, as well as turn off and on the Kodi app remotely (to turn on the entire device support for Wake-on-LAN is required).
A simple, easy to configure and use app that will allow you to effectively control every innovative feature of Kodi without ever having to get close to the PC.
2) Official Kodi Remote (iPhone)
If we own an Apple device we can control Kodi remotely using the app available here -> Official Kodi Remote .
This app retains most of the features of the app for Android, adding the design and style of the iPhone app, with a practical side menu where you can access all indexed content quickly and quickly, a practical playback screen where you can see the poster of the content, the scroll bar and the main buttons to control playback plus a practical directional arrow remote control useful for moving around the Kodi menus and configuring all items without ever using the keyboard or mouse.
Definitely the best choice for those who want to use Kodi on a PC or Mac and control everything using this free app for iPhone or iPad.
3) Yatse: Kodi Remote Control (Android)
Without a shadow of a doubt, the best app to effectively control all Kodi features is Yatse, available free for Android from here -> Yatse: Kodi Remote Control .
This app offers numerous additional features that cannot be tried with other apps, among which stands out: control via voice commands (use Google Now for speech synthesis), control of IPTV lists and remote plugins, advanced content indexing with the possibility to filter films and TV series by year, author, critical vote, viewers' vote and remove those already seen, advanced playlists and transmission of content from Kodi to an external playback device, such as Chromecast or any DLNA device.
If we are looking for the best app for the remote control of the Kodi media player, just install Yatse to get all the features we need.
