Auto-starting a channel

[bigfatipod]

Is there any way to remotely start or control an app from the iPhone without seeing the screen of the Apple TV? For instance, I may be in another room and want to start up PBS Kids.
I realize there’s a few steps before you get to a show…. So I guess I am wondering if there’s any way to either:
A) see what’s on the screen remotely so I can navigate it with my phone
B) run some sort of a predetermined script the Apple TV could follow (to start playing a channel)

thank you for any help!

 

[waw74]

you can power on an aTV and launch a specific app from your phone using shortcuts. (and since it's a shortcut, you can also trigger it with siri on your devices)

Once it's open, navigating in that app is more problematic.
sometimes that app will have a remote feature where you can use your phone to control it. (select an item on your phone, and it will give you an option to play on aTV)
or sometimes an app will have a web api - I have channels, which is DVR like software, by opening a webpage that ends it "play/channel/600" as long as channels is running on the aTV it will change to channel 600.

The second probably isn't going to happen for PBSkids as it's more of a "geek" feature.
The first might work, but I don't use the app


The other option is airplay, and just start something playing on your phone, and airplay it to that TV. Your phone then becomes unusable for other things though. If you have an iPad you can always use that too.

 

[bigfatipod]

you can power on an aTV and launch a specific app from your phone using shortcuts. (and since it's a shortcut, you can also trigger it with siri on your devices)

Once it's open, navigating in that app is more problematic.
sometimes that app will have a remote feature where you can use your phone to control it. (select an item on your phone, and it will give you an option to play on aTV)
or sometimes an app will have a web api - I have channels, which is DVR like software, by opening a webpage that ends it "play/channel/600" as long as channels is running on the aTV it will change to channel 600.

The second probably isn't going to happen for PBSkids as it's more of a "geek" feature.
The first might work, but I don't use the app


The other option is airplay, and just start something playing on your phone, and airplay it to that TV. Your phone then becomes unusable for other things though. If you have an iPad you can always use that too.

Cool, thanks, I got it to open the app which is good enough!