A new Roku remote that features customizable buttons and a rechargeable battery might be on the horizon.
The new remote, called the ‘Roku Voice Remote Pro,’ includes a feature that helps people find it when it’s lost, a 3.5mm headphone jack and hands-free voice control. This means you can treat Roku’s voice assistant like Google Assistant and say “Hey Roku” to trigger it.
A report from Engadget says that early access users have been testing the remote for a few months, so hopefully, it releases shortly.
While none of these upgrades seem that exciting, this simple remote upgrade can bring a lot of value to the system if you’re a Roku user. Customizable buttons alone are a nice touch since it lets users remap the bottom four buttons to apps they actually use.
Each Roku product ships with a different remote depending on that device’s licensing agreements. This means that while one might ship with Netflix, Prime Video and Spotify and Disney+ app shortcuts, others could come with Deezer, GlobalTV, CBS All Access and others.
Programmable buttons will make it a lot easier to make these buttons useful to each user.
While the hands-free voice option is cool, I’m not sure I’d use it or like the idea of adding another always-listing microphone to my living room.
However, the return of the headphone jack is going to be greatly appreciated by many. That said, since we don’t know much about it, I’m worried that it will only accept audio via USB-C, which it likely uses to charge. Still, this is all speculation, so we won’t know for real until the company reveals the actual remote.
Likely, this remote will only ship with high-end Roku TVs and streaming sticks, while mid-range and lower-end models will likely be packaged with progressively worse remotes depending on the price.
Image credit: Reddit
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