Roku Developer Program

[EnTerr]

I have seen multiple times people asking about being able to re-program the channel shortcut (aka "sponsored") buttons on the remotes. And i don't read regularly the General, so it ought to be a very popular request - but my guess is not feasible because of contractual obligations to the advertisers. However, here is a fresh idea that i saw recently:

"@RegReader" wrote:
How about the A or B button?

In other words - how about letting users assign an action to the buttons A/B?

"A" and "B" are unused outside of games, so no harm in letting them be useful when in the player home UI. There is even a suitable place where that configuration can be added, Settings > System > Remote (sub-menu avail only on players that support radio remotes). The only action that has been requested so far is to assign a channel-of-choice (e.g. YouTube or HBO Now) to a button, so one can launch it with a single button press, if so they please.

Oh, and this will "magically" make the remotes with A/B buttons more desirable, more "premium" - for no added hardware cost!

[myMute]

I would like to program one of the buttons as a "mute sound" button. I do not understand why that was not included along with the up/down volume buttons on the side.

[JoseBegui]

We really need this - I would like to have the A button take me to YouTube TV directly.

[gomad]

I think newer Roku devices has similar functionality.

For New Roku Ultra remote:

"The remote also has a pair of programmable buttons. Hold either one down for a couple of seconds, and it’ll map to whatever voice command you entered last through the Roku remote’s separate microphone button. The most obvious use for this is launching specific apps, but you could also program a search for your favorite TV genre or have a button that launches music directly in certain apps, such as Pandora. It’s a neat feature, though it’s inherently limited by what Roku let’s you do with voice control on its platform."

[Komag]

Interesting...I didn't know about those new buttons, makes me wish I picked one up on Black Friday for half off just to test out the new 1 and 2 buttons and see how versatile they might be.

[jmsnyc]

Does this work for the 2018 Ultra with A B buttons?

[renojim]

The A/B buttons aren't the same as the 1/2 buttons on the newer remotes.

[RokuJonathanD · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, the A/B buttons on a Roku remote control are not programmable. 

The complete list of buttons that a channel may handle is listed in the SceneGraph onKeyEvent documentation.  

In addition, ECP commands may be used to send keypresses when testing a channel (ECP commands may not be included in the channel code). The list of keypresses that may be sent via ECP is included in the ECP doc. 

[Equake]

Why dors my remote have a permanent button for RDIO, a dead app

[ChipStocks]

I always use Roku to watch streaming TV. I don't want to juggle multiple remotes so that I can mute the sound. The A/B buttons could be a great solution for this very basic function.  Please don't respond with an answer that sounds like "use the remote that came with the TV,,,,,,"  Thanks for your consideration.