You can now use your iPhone to leave comments on YouTube on your TV

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YouTube on a television
YouTube on a television (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • YouTube now lets you use an iPhone or iPad to leave comments on videos via the company's TV app.
  • Devices don't need to be connected to the same network as the TV, they just need to be signed into the same account.

Using your TV remote to control the YouTube interface is pretty crappy but now you can use your iPhone to do it instead. The move means that iPhones — and iPads — can even be used to leave comments on videos and more.

The system is a clever one and works when you have YouTube open on your TV and then open the app on your device. You'll be prompted to connect the two together — and they don't even need to be connected to the same network. It's using Google magic and your YouTube account to get things working, see.

The Verge reports:

So YouTube's rolling out a new feature that more closely connects your phone to your TV. (It works on Android and iOS devices, so tablets should work too.) If you sit down and open the app on your streaming device, and then open the YouTube app on your phone, you should get a pop-up asking if you're watching YouTube on your TV. Once you hit "Connect," your phone becomes a synchronized companion for your TV. You can leave comments on the video, queue up the next up, Like and Subscribe, all the things that are much too annoying to do from your remote. YouTube promised a feature like this in a February blog post detailing its 2022 plans, and now it's launching.

YouTube running on a TV and phone

YouTube running on a TV and phone (Image credit: YouTube)

Being able to use your phone to enter comments is a biggie, but just being able to do things like subscribing to channels without fighting with a cumbersome TV remote is a win. YouTube says that the feature is rolling out now although it's to be noted that TVs, streaming boxes, and sticks will need to be running the latest version of the YouTube app for any of this to work — something that might not be a given depending on your hardware.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.