The Siri Remote has long been the easiest piece of Apple hardware to lose, usually somewhere between the sofa cushions. Apple’s latest version finally addresses that problem directly, adding Find My support to the $59 remote that ships with the newly refreshed Apple TV 4K and is also sold separately.
At a glance, nothing has changed. The fourth-generation remote keeps essentially the same look as the aluminium model Apple introduced in 2021, which brought back physical buttons and a clickpad after years of complaints about the original glass-topped touch surface. The upgrades are inside. The remote now appears in the Find My app, supports Precision Finding for directional, on-screen guidance to its location, and includes a built-in speaker that can play a sound when you’re searching for it.
There is a catch. Apple says Precision Finding only works with the iPhone Duo, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro. Owners of older iPhones should still be able to trigger the speaker through Find My, but the arrow-guided search is limited to recent models, and Apple hasn’t explained why the list is so narrow. Anyone hoping to replace an AirTag stuck to the back of their remote may want to check which phone they’re holding first.
The more welcome news is backward compatibility. Apple says the new remote works with every Apple TV 4K generation, from the 2017 original through to the model launched this week, as well as the older Apple TV HD. That means existing owners don’t need to buy a new box to get a remote they can actually track down, which matters given the new Apple TV 4K costs $299. The remote will also pair with a Mac, though functionality there is limited without extra software.
From a practical standpoint, this is a sensible but overdue update. Find My has been extended to AirPods, AirTags and third-party accessories for years, so leaving the most frequently misplaced accessory in the living room out of the network always felt like an odd omission. Selling the remote separately at the same price point keeps it reasonable, and broad compatibility turns it into a meaningful upgrade for anyone still running older Apple TV hardware.
What remains unclear is whether Apple will bring Precision Finding to a wider range of iPhones over time, or whether owners of slightly older devices will simply be left listening for a beep.
