Learn why you cannot use your Siri Remote to play some tilt-based games on your TV, even though you have the newest Apple TV model.
If you thought about using Apple’s new Siri Remote to take advantage of motion controls in supported Apple TV games, it may be a wise idea to stick with your old Siri Remote. This is because the redesigned Siri Remote on Apple TV 4K 2nd generation and later lacks sensors for tilt-based games.
Also see: 19 tips for using your Apple TV Siri Remote like a pro
No accelerometer/gyro in the new Siri Remote
The oft-criticized Siri Remote on Apple TV 4K 1st generation (released in 2017) (that’s also compatible with older Apple TV HD, released in 2015) has a built-in accelerometer and three-axis gyro. This allows you to use your Siri Remote as a tilt-based game controller. Depending on how the game is built, you could just slant your remote to do things like turn in a game or slide to the side and more.
However, the latest Siri Remotes provided in the box with Apple TV 4K 2nd generation (2021) and 3rd generation (2022) lack the accelerometer and three-axis gyroscope present in the original Siri Remote. This fact is evident on the TV Remote technical specifications page on iDownloadBlog and Apple’s website.
Is that really that big of a deal, you may ask yourself?
For average Apple TV owners who only do occasional gaming on the device, the answer is ‘no,’ with a caveat — unless they want to play one of those Apple TV games that specifically require motion controls and don’t support any game controllers.
Note that some games allow you to substitute motion-controlled actions with swipes. If that’s the case, you can use the touch surface on the new Siri Remotes for fast directional swipes.
Remember that you can also connect a PlayStation, Xbox, or MFi game controller with your Apple TV and enjoy tvOS games the way they were meant to be played.
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