Full library & search
Every album, artist, playlist, and track on the host — searchable and startable from the phone.
Lagu Remote
The music stays.
You move.
Leave Lagu playing on the computer, the Apple TV, or an Android TV. Pick up your phone and run the whole session — browse, queue, seek, volume — from the sofa or the kitchen, and with Lagu Relay, from anywhere else.
Phones and hosts mix freely across platforms. An Android phone can run an Apple TV; an iPhone can run a Windows PC. One protocol, every combination.
01Browse without going back
Search and open your full library on your phone, then start an album, playlist, station, or song on the host.
02The real queue, in your hand
See what’s playing, add what comes next, move songs around, or jump ahead. The queue stays in step on both screens.
03Local first, anywhere after
Pair once with a QR code or six-digit PIN. At home everything runs over your own Wi-Fi, phone to host. Away from home, Lagu Relay carries the same controls, sealed end to end so the relay can’t read them.
How it works
Paired in seconds,
yours to revoke.
Remote is off until you switch it on at the host. From there it’s three steps, once per device.
Show the code
Enable Remote on your desktop, Apple TV, or Android TV and it shows a QR code, with a six-digit PIN as a fallback.
Scan and trust
Your phone verifies the host’s certificate fingerprint and mints its own random token. Codes expire, and wrong guesses are limited.
Control everything
Browse, search, queue, transport, volume, stations — and hand playback between devices. Unpair any device later and its session closes immediately.
More than play and pause
The whole player,
in your pocket.
Queue editing
Up Next with drag-to-reorder, Play Next, and Add to Queue. Both screens follow along live.
Transport & volume
Play, pause, skip, seek, shuffle, repeat, and the host’s volume — with smooth phone-side position tracking.
Start stations
Fire off track, artist, album, genre, mood, or decade radio on the host without touching it.
Two-way handoff
Move playback from phone to host — or back — keeping the track and your place in it. Never two speakers at once. If the computer is already playing a queue of its own when you connect, Lagu asks which one to keep.
Artwork from your server
Covers load on the phone straight from your own Plex server — never squeezed through the Remote link.
Cross-platform
The Android and Apple apps speak one wire protocol, tested byte-for-byte against each other.
From the lock screen
On iPhone and Android, the lock screen and your headphone buttons drive the host too. On by default, in Settings, Remote.
CarPlay, Siri, and widgets
While the phone controls a host, CarPlay, Siri, widgets, and the watch start music on the host instead of the phone.
Away from home
When your phone can’t find the host on your network, Lagu Relay connects the two, encrypted end to end so the relay can’t read what passes. How Lagu Relay works.
Security
Phone to host,
sealed end to end,
wherever you are.
At home your phone talks directly to Lagu on your own network. Away from home, Lagu Relay passes messages it cannot open, and you can switch it off on any device.
- Encrypted, pinned TLS with the host’s certificate fingerprint locked in at pairing.
- Per-device tokens Random, revocable, and stored hashed on the host.
- Identity over address Network discovery only suggests addresses — trust always comes from the pinned certificate.
- End to end over the relay Phone and host seal every message with a key only they hold; the relay sees encrypted bytes, never commands, titles, or tokens.
Who does what
Hosts and controllers,
in any combination.
Anything marked Controller pairs with anything marked Host — same pairing, same controls, whatever the combination. None of it needs a Plex Pass; a free Plex account covers all of it.
Host
Desktop
Hosts whenever it’s running — even closed to the tray. Keeps music and connected phones alive in the background.
Windows · macOS · Linux Host
Apple TV
Hosts while the Lagu app is open — that part is a tvOS rule. Phones reconnect when you return to the app.
Foreground hosting Host
Android TV
Hosts from Settings with a QR and a six-digit PIN, lists paired phones with last seen and Forget, and keeps running when you back out of the app, so a paired phone does not drop.
Background hosting Controller
iPhone & iPad
The full controller: browse, queue, stations, handoff. A persistent banner always says which room you’re running.
SwiftUI Controller
Android
The same controller, natively — with network rediscovery that survives router reboots and multi-adapter hosts.
Kotlin · Compose System remote
Apple Watch
Controls iPhone playback through the watchOS Now Playing route, and its Lagu Remote complication reaches a computer or TV through the iPhone.
watchOS system pathQuestions
The ones
people ask.
Does Lagu Remote need a Plex Pass?
No. Lagu Remote works on a free Plex account, at home or away from home through Lagu Relay, which needs no account either.
Can an Android phone control an Apple TV or a Mac?
Yes. Lagu Remote is one protocol implemented on each platform, so any controller pairs with any host. Android to Apple TV, iPhone to Windows, iPad to Linux: same QR code, same controls.
Does the music stream to my phone?
No. Audio stays on the computer or the TV; your phone sends commands and shows what’s playing. If you’d rather listen on the phone, hand the session off and playback follows you.
Which devices can be a host?
Desktop on Windows, macOS, and Linux, whenever it is running, tray included. Android TV, which keeps hosting when you back out of the app. Apple TV, while the Lagu app is open in the foreground, which is a tvOS rule rather than ours.
Does Lagu Remote work away from home?
Yes, since 0.16.0, through Lagu Relay. When your phone can’t find the computer or TV on the network it’s on, it connects through the nearest of our relays instead. Every message is encrypted end to end between your phone and the host, so the relay can’t read your commands, your library, or what plays. It’s on by default on iPhone, Android phones, Apple TV, and Android TV; on a computer, turn on Lagu Relay in Settings › Remote. To pair a new phone from somewhere else, switch on Pair over Lagu Relay at the host before you scan its code. The Lagu Relay page says what the relay sees and keeps.
What happens if my computer’s network changes?
The phone rediscovers the host — over Bonjour and a ranked set of address candidates — and only reconnects after the host proves its identity with the pinned certificate. With Lagu Relay on, it can also reach the host through the relay while it looks. A failed guess never breaks your pairing.
How do I remove a paired device?
Every paired phone appears in a list on the host. Revoke one and its token dies on the spot; resetting pairing rotates all trust material and starts fresh.
Run the room from the sofa.
Remote is in every current build. Desktop hosting is free forever, iPhone is free during the beta, and Android is $1.99 once.
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