On this page
1. Hisense runs six platforms — start here
Every other brand in this guide runs one or at most three systems. Hisense's own platform page lists six, and which one you got depends on the model, the region and the year it was made. That matters more than where the button is, because on three of the six a third-party remote app cannot reach the television at all. So this is the first table rather than the last.
| Platform Hisense ships | What the phone route is |
|---|---|
| Google TV and Android TV | Works. The protocol is Google's, so any Google TV remote app reaches it. The television shows a six-character code that you type into the phone — hexadecimal, so it can contain letters. |
| Roku TV | Works, and it is the easiest of the three. Roku answers plain requests on your own network with nothing to pair: no code, no permission box, no account. Hisense has sold Roku-branded sets in the US and the UK among other markets. |
| VIDAA (Hisense's own system) | A phone can control it, but only through Hisense's own RemoteNOW app. VIDAA exposes no open interface, so third-party remote apps cannot reach it — that is a design choice, not a bug in those apps. |
| Fire TV and XClass | Each speaks its vendor's own protocol — Amazon's and Xumo's respectively — rather than Google's or Roku's. A Fire TV set is driven by Amazon's app, an XClass set by its own. |
Hisense's own platform page lists VIDAA, Android TV, Fire TV, Google TV, Roku TV and XClass. Six systems under one badge makes Hisense the most fragmented brand on this site, and the same model number has shipped on different platforms in different countries and different years. Any guide that answers “how do I control a Hisense” without first asking which platform you have is guessing.
2. Finding the button, and what it does
Hisense gives you a useful landmark that most brands do not: on most sets the button sits on the underside directly below the infrared sensor. That sensor is visible as a small dark window along the bottom edge, so you are looking for something you can actually see rather than feeling blindly along a whole edge.
- Find the infrared window first. It is the small dark lens along the bottom edge that receives the remote. On most Hisense sets the button is immediately below or behind it, in the middle or slightly to one side.
- On newer Hisense Roku TVs there is only a power button, under the infrared receiver. One press when the set is off turns it on; it does not open a menu.
- On older Hisense models there are volume and channel buttons beside the power button. Those older sets are genuinely operable by hand, which the newer ones are not.
- Some sets put it on the rear panel instead, towards the lower right, a few centimetres in from the edge. A few older budget models had it towards the upper right of the back.
- The position shifts by series. If the infrared window gives you nothing, the model's own manual is the only certain answer — and you will want the model number anyway for the next section.
Press the button once to get the set on, then go straight to identifying the platform. On a modern Hisense the panel button will not take you any further than that, and which of the six systems you are looking at decides everything that follows.
3. Which of the six do you have?
The fastest answer is on the screen, and the second fastest is in your hand. Both take seconds, and either beats guessing from the model name.
In order of how quickly they settle it:
- Turn it on and look first for the two platforms no other brand here ships. VIDAA shows Hisense's own layout with no Google Play Store anywhere; Fire TV puts a navigation bar across the top. If you see either, you are on one of the three a third-party app cannot reach and you can stop reading the rest. If you see neither, you are on Roku (channel tiles with a menu column at the left), Google TV (rows of films and shows) or Android TV (a row of app icons) — and all three work.
- Look at the old remote, even a dead one. A purple Roku logo means Roku TV. A coloured microphone or Assistant key means Google TV or Android TV. An Alexa button means Fire TV. A VIDAA button, or Hisense branding with app shortcut keys and no Assistant key, means VIDAA.
- Check for the Google Play Store on the set. If it is there, you are on Google TV or Android TV and the phone route works. VIDAA does not carry it.
- Look the model number up on Hisense's regional site. This is the definitive answer and the only one that works when the screen will not come on at all.
Region and year matter more on Hisense than on any other brand here. The same series has shipped with VIDAA in one market and Google TV in another, so a forum post about “the U7” or “the A6” may be describing a different television from yours. Trust the screen, the remote in your hand, or your own model number on Hisense's site for your country — in that order.
4. What to do, by platform
Once you know which system you have, the route is short. Do the setting changes while you still have a working remote, because the panel button will not get you into the menus.
- Roku TV — put the phone on the same Wi-Fi and open a remote app. There is nothing to pair at all. Then turn on Fast TV start under Settings, System, Power so the set stays reachable in standby.
- Google TV or Android TV — connect with the set on and read the six-character code off the screen. It is hexadecimal, so copy letters as letters. Then enable the network setting that keeps the television reachable while it is in standby.
- VIDAA — install Hisense's own RemoteNOW app and put the phone on the same Wi-Fi. Third-party remote apps will not find the set, so there is no point working through their troubleshooting steps.
- Fire TV or XClass — use Amazon's app or the set's own app respectively. As with VIDAA, a general-purpose remote app is not going to reach these.
On every one of the six, HDMI-CEC is worth switching on as a fallback: with it enabled, a games console or a streaming player already plugged in will turn the television on and select its own input, which gets you a picture even when nothing else is available.
5. Three of six, and what that costs you
It is worth being plain about this, because nobody else writing about Hisense is. Of the six systems Hisense ships, three speak an interface that any remote app can use and three do not.
What that means in practice:
- On Roku TV you get the most. Inputs are listed like apps under the names you gave them, so a phone can jump straight to the HDMI socket your console is on instead of cycling through sources.
- On Google TV and Android TV you can wake the set from standby. Wake-on-LAN works once the television's own network setting allows it, so the phone can switch it on rather than only operate a set somebody else turned on.
- On VIDAA, Fire TV and XClass you are tied to one app. Hisense's RemoteNOW, Amazon's app or the set's own. They work, but you cannot choose a different one, and no amount of troubleshooting will make a third-party remote find the television.
6. Buying a replacement remote
Because Hisense spans six platforms, this is the brand where buying blind goes wrong most often. A remote for one platform will not drive a set running another, whatever it says on the front of both.
- If your set is a Hisense Roku TV, buy a simple Roku infrared remote. It needs no pairing, which means it works before the set is on Wi-Fi, and it is cross-brand — the same remote drives a Hisense, a TCL or an onn Roku TV. For someone locked out entirely, it is the cheapest and most certain way back in.
- For every other platform, match the model number. Take the code printed on your old remote and the model number from the label on the back, and check both against Hisense's own support pages rather than a marketplace description. A voice remote has to be paired through a screen, so it is the worse choice when you are already locked out.
- A universal infrared remote covers the basics everywhere. Power, volume, channel and input will work on any of the six, because those commands are infrared on all of them. The microphone and assistant keys will not, because those ride over Bluetooth.
That last line is the one piece of good news that applies across all six platforms: whatever system your Hisense runs, a cheap universal infrared remote will get you power, volume, channel and input back. It will not give you the smart menus, but it will get the television watchable tonight.