Like every other day, I was feeling lazy to reach my mouse to skip a Music track that I don’t like. I even felt lazy to type on my keyboard. I was in search of solution to ease my laziness.
As they all say, “Lazy people are good at finding shortcuts”, I found Unified remote (Tweet This), a Mouse, Keyboard and Universal remote control to control everything on your computer with your fingers on your smartphone.
Unified Remote is a remote control app which enables you to use your smartphone as a mouse, keyboard and a Remote control for Music or anything else on your computer. It is a cross-platform software, so it works with any computer running on Windows, Mac, Linux and also with Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
Let’s see how to setup Unified remote and learn how to control your computer without even touching your Mouse and keyboard.
Setup Unified Remote with your PC/ Mac/ Linux
It is absolutely simple to setup Unified remote. You just have to install the Server software on your Computer and the app on your mobile, connect them to the same Wi-Fi network. The process is similar for any other OS.
Install Unified remote server on your computer
Download the server software from Unified Remote website based on whether your computer is running on Windows, Mac, Linux or Raspberry Pi (Raspbian) and install it.
The program automatically runs in the background after installation and an icon appear in the notification area. If not, search for the application in the start menu and run it manually.
The program needs no additional configuration, but if you want to tweak any settings, double-click on the Unified remote icon in notification area and open a Html configuration page in your browser.
Add server on your Smartphone(s)
Next make sure that the computer you want to control and the Smartphone are connected to the same Wi-Fi network and the server software is running on your computer.
Open the app, go to Menu (3 line icon in the top-left) and tap on Servers.
Here, the app automatically shows the computers on your Wi-Fi network. Tap the computer you want to control. That’s it you are done.
Setup Unified remote using Bluetooth (without Wi-Fi)
If you don’t have a Wi-Fi router, just create a Wi-Fi hotspot on your laptop or Phone and connect the other one to it.
But if don’t have any sources to connect through Wi-Fi, you can connect through Bluetooth.
Steps to connect and add server through Bluetooth:
- Install the server software on your computer as mentioned in previous steps.
- Turn-on Bluetooth and connect your smartphone to your Mac or Windows laptop. If you are using windows, make sure your laptop/ PC is using Microsoft Bluetooth stack. If not, you can Switch to it.
- Open the Unified remote app and add server in the same way mentioned above.
Use your Android/iPhone/Windows Phone as a Mouse, Keyboard and All purpose Remote control for PC
There are many other apps like Remote Mouse, that turn your smartphone into a Mouse & Keyboard for your computer.
But unified remote not only allows to move the cursor and type text on your computer, but there are many other remotes to Control your presentation, Music & Video play, Turn OFF your computer and much more.
There are some basic remotes added by default, but you can add more remotes by clicking on ‘+’ sign.
Basic input: Mouse and Keyboard
Go to Basic input and this will be your Trackpad/ Mouse. Now here move your finger on the screen to move the cursor, swipe with 2 fingers to scroll, Tap to click (Left-click), Double tap to Double-click and Tap with 2 fingers for Right-click.
It is quite comfortable to hold the phone in and move the cursor with Thumb.
To access the keyboard, open the Keyboard remote and you can see a full-featured keyboard with Ctrl, alt and all other functional keys along with a qwerty pad.
Even when using other remotes you can use mouse and keyboard by tapping on small icons at the bottom.
As a Remote control for Media and Presentation
The Slideshow remote can be used to Move between slides and switch to full screen. We can also quickly move to Start/ End slide or a specific slide. The remote also seemed to work with presentation sites like Slideshare, Google Docs
On the other hand, the Media remote is the most useful of all remotes. With a general media remote you can Pause/ Play, Change tracks or Stop the music and video playback. And you can also adjust the system volume.
There are dedicated remotes for VLC media player and Windows media player (for windows), which has some extra abilities to Seek the video or music playback. Varying the volume in these remote change the volume inside the Player and not the system volume.
Power control, Task manager, File manager
Apart, there are many other useful remotes despite being it is a free version.
The Power control remote is another handy remote, by which you can Shutdown, Restart, Sleep, Lock/ Logoff and a Wake-on-LAN functions. While, you have to configure some settings to get Wake on LAN working.
There is a File manager remote to Browse & Open, Delete, Copy or Move the files, all within the computer (you cannot use it to transfer files between Phone & Computer)
There are windows exclusive remote, Task manager, to view tasks running. You can also simple Close or Quit and Kill the applications and processes running in the background.
Another remote to quickly launch Start menu applications.
Another remote to quickly launch Start menu applications.
Final Words
There are many other remotes and a Screen viewing feature that you can use by purchasing the premium version of Unified remote. But, in my opinion, the free version has more than enough Remote control features than you require. But if you want more remotes you can spend few bucks to buy it.
Unified remote is a very handy tool that has every possible remote control to control your windows, Mac or Linux computer. It has many features that other similar apps lack.
So, give it a try and post your opinions and any problems in comments below. And don’t forget to subscribe to our free email newsletter to know about more awesome tech things.
Awesome tutorial man, just finished the installation and it's working quite well.
Thanks!
I am glad that you liked it. Yeah! really good app, works great as a backup mouse.
Thanks for commenting.