Google Nov. 9 launched YouTube Remote to let U.S. users control the YouTube Leanback application from their Android smartphones.
YouTube Leanback airs content from the Website continuously so that users don’t have to constantly search and hunt for music and other content to watch.
Leanback is one of the marquee applications for Google TV, the search engine’s ambitious new effort to blend Web and channel surfing via Android-based TVs and Blu-ray players from Sony and the Logitech Revue companion box.
Available in the Android Market now, YouTube Remote lets users sign into the app from their Android handset and sign into Leanback on Google TV or their computer with the same YouTube account.
This will enable users to control Leanback with from their phone.
YouTube Senior Product Manager Kuan Yong noted that Remote users will be able to find and queue up videos to watch, then shuttle them to Leanback with a single tap of a button.
Remote users can also play, pause, skip forward and back and control the sound volume on Leanback on their desktop or Google TV.
Yong cautioned that YouTube Remote is still in beta and sports features that are not in the official YouTube Android app.
YouTube Remote is available only in the United States. Users may download it from Android Market by searching for “YouTube Remote,” or by scanning the QR code here.
YouTube Remote comes after Logitech made its Logitech Harmony Android app available in the Android Market.
While Remote manages Leanback alone, the Logitech app lets users turn their TVs, set-top boxes and A/V receivers off and on, change channels, and navigate applications and other Google TV content.