DISH Network is one of the USA’s most beloved television providers, offering a subscription service with over 320 of the country’s favorite channels. TV’s running DISH Network often require a DISH specific remote control in order to get the full benefits of the DISH package.
As can happen with anything small and portable, however, DISH Network remote controls can be lost. Thus, a lot of DISH users wonder if there’s a remote control app they can use on their phones in place of an official DISH Network control.
The answer is: No, DISH Network does not have its own, official remote control app. It has two official apps which may be handy for DISH users, but neither are remote controls.
There are however other unofficial remote control apps for DISH, such as the eponymous ‘Remote Control for DISH Network’ app on the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, however, these unofficial apps are often incompatible with modern smartphones (as require infrared) and/or are choked up with pop-up ads, making them next-to unusable.
Thus, if you’ve lost your official DISH Network television remote control, or were never issued one in the first place, we’d recommend getting yourself a new physical one, instead of relying on shoddy third-party apps.
If you would like to learn more about DISH Network or any of the apps offered for the television provider on the Play Store or App Store, please see our FAQ section below.
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FAQs
What is DISH Network?
DISH Network (short for Digital Sky Highway Network) is an American, Colorado-based television provider and internet television network provider, offering over 320 different channels from the Disney channel and Cartoon Network to Animal Planet, and a host of other much more niche, interesting and specialized channels such as AlmaVision Hispanic, the Independent Film Channel, and WeatherNation.
DISH Network is accessed via a subscription to the service, similar to the subscriptions you would sign up for with Netflix, Disney+, or any other streaming service. DISH Network is a super popular television provider in America, and typically comes with its own TV remote control allowing its paying users to quickly hop between various channels at the press of a button.
Unfortunately, as with anything like this, it can be possible to lose your DISH Network TV remote control, or otherwise misplace it. In such a situation, you might be wondering whether there’s a remote control app for DISH Network which you can download onto your phone so as to use your phone as a remote control.
Otherwise, you might be wondering the same thing with a view to recording, scheduling, or planning your TV watching from afar (i.e. when not in the same room or even the same building as your DISH Network-installed television).
To discover whether you can get remote control apps for DISH Network, read our full article up above.
What can the ‘Remote Control for DISH Network’ on the Play Store do?
As we described above, there is one particular app on the Google Play Store (thus compatible with Android phones and tablets) which purports to be a remote control app specifically tailored to DISH Network.
With this app, you can do all of the things you would usually be able to do with any ordinary DISH Network TV remote control. You can change channels, change the volume, alter settings, schedule programming, and access your DISH account via your TV.
What the app cannot do, however, is to do any of this from afar, nor can it offer you a simple-to-use UI (user interface) to complete any other DISH Network related task you might have hoped to. The app looks like, and works like, a remote control. That’s it!
Is it worth it to get the ‘Remote Control for DISH Network’ app on Play Store?
We’ve not had a chance to test out the ‘Remote Control for DISH Network’ app ourselves yet, but that’s not really an issue here. Enough disgruntled users have left feedback on the Google Play Store regarding this app that we think we have all the information we need to say… maybe stay away from this app.
There are two major inherent problems with the Remote Control for DISH Network (RCDN) app. Firstly, it only works via Infrared (as a normal TV remote control would). Unfortunately, few phones these days are designed with in-built infrared, despite it once being the norm.
Gone are the days of exchanging files phone to phone in the school playground, holding the infrared panels of each others’ devices together whilst the file was transferred over. Today, instead, we have WiFi, cellular data, and Bluetooth for that. Thus, this app will not work with the majority of newer model phones.
Secondly, the app is a haven for pop-up ads, many of which are full-screen size. In fact, the app is so infested with pop-ups that most users have said it makes the app almost unusable. One user reported that they believe it would honestly be easier just to go looking for and find the missing original DISH Network remote.
Thus, we would not recommend getting the RCDN app.
Is there an official DISH Network remote control app?
There are two official DISH Network apps available via the Google Play Store (and presumably also the Apple iOS App Store). These are called MyDISH and DISH Anywhere. Whilst both are super handy, neither actually acts as a remote control.
MyDISH is an app which DISH users can use to access their account, schedule programming, and more. DISH Anywhere is a streaming app which paying DISH subscribers can use to watch their favorite shows, movies and channels on the go, anywhere, anytime, just like they would at home, but from the comfort of the road.
Unfortunately, there is no official DISH Network remote control app for DISH TV. As the unofficial apps tend to be plagued by impossibly frequent pop-up ads, we would suggest you just buy a new TV remote for DISH Network, or go on the hunt for the missing one!
