The remote for every Vizio SmartCast TV.

• Yes — RemoteWave turns your phone into a full Vizio TV remote with D‑pad navigation, playback controls, and an on-screen keyboard
• You don't need the physical remote at all once you're connected

• RemoteWave works with Vizio TVs running SmartCast, which covers the vast majority of Vizio Smart TVs sold since 2016
• This includes the P‑Series, M‑Series, and V‑Series lineups

• RemoteWave can control volume on Vizio SmartCast-enabled soundbars paired to your TV, alongside full remote control of the TV itself

RemoteWave finds your Vizio SmartCast TV by discovering it on your phone's Wi‑Fi radio, which Android treats as a device-discovery capability rather than a single named toggle:

• On Android 13 and newer, the app requests the Nearby devices permission — specifically for Wi‑Fi device discovery — which does not share your physical location
• On Android 12 and earlier, the operating system bundles Wi‑Fi device scanning under Location permission, even though RemoteWave never reads, stores, or uses your GPS coordinates
• You can review or revoke this permission anytime under Settings > Apps > RemoteWave > Permissions

No separate internet connection is required to use the remote:

• RemoteWave communicates with your Vizio SmartCast TV directly over your home Wi‑Fi network
• An internet connection is only needed once, to download the app from the Play Store
• Streaming content on the TV itself still needs its own internet connection, independent of the remote control features

A handful of causes account for most connection drops:

• Weak Wi‑Fi signal near the TV, especially over long distances or through multiple walls
• Router congestion on the 2.4GHz band — switching the TV or phone to 5GHz Wi‑Fi where available often helps
• Android's battery optimization suspending the app in the background — see the next question
• A guest network with client or AP isolation enabled, which blocks devices from seeing each other even on the same Wi‑Fi

For the most reliable connection to your Vizio SmartCast TV, yes:

• Go to Settings > Apps > RemoteWave > Battery, and set it to Unrestricted or disable battery optimization
• This prevents Android from suspending the app's background network activity, which is the most common cause of a remote that needs to be reopened to reconnect

Yes. Most VPN apps route all traffic through an external server, which blocks the direct Wi‑Fi path RemoteWave needs to reach your Vizio SmartCast TV:

• Turn off the VPN while using the remote
• Or add RemoteWave to your VPN app's split-tunneling or per-app exclusion list if it offers one

RemoteWave is built to need as little as possible:

• Remote-control commands travel directly between your phone and your Vizio SmartCast TV over your local Wi‑Fi network — never routed through our servers
• No Vizio account is required to use the core remote-control features
• See our full Privacy Policy for details on diagnostic data

• Yes — the core features are free to download and use
• Any optional extras are always disclosed clearly on the app's Google Play listing before you install