Yatse is my Kodi (formerly XBMC) remote Android app of choice.

Kodi is a free and open source media center application. It’s what I currently use on my dedicated HTPC computer in the living room (via OpenELEC).

The Yatse Remote app allows me to control the media center from my phone. It’s so good doing that, that ever since I installed it, I never needed to pull out the HTPC keyboard / mouse!

There are plenty of alternative Kodi remote apps, including an official one from the XBMC team. I briefly used the official app a while ago (maybe early 2013?), and got quickly frustrated.

The Yatse app is free, with a $6.99 unlocker for extra features (and developer support). I never had any need for the extra features, so I purchased the upgrade only to support the developer.

Yatse also has various plugins for even more features!

App Highlights is a recurring series. From time to time, I highlight one Android app that I found useful. Feel free to suggest apps for me to highlight, but be advised that I focus on apps that I actually use.

I’ve been using the Yatse remote on a daily basis for 1-2 years now, and I consistently had an excellent experience with it.

The app is stable and complete. It has frequent updates to keep up with Kodi progress, while not breaking support for previous XBMC versions (it supports versions 12.x, 13.x, and 14.x).

It’s well designed, and super easy to set up.

Basic features that exist in the app, but are oddly missing from some of the other XBMC remote apps I’ve seen include volume control, and subtitles control. Recently the app added support for downloading subtitles in real time, although it never worked for me so far.

Other interesting features include:

• Wake-On-LAN support (turn on the HTPC from the app!)
• Lock screen thingies and controls.
• Send media from YouTube / browser.
• Voice commands.
• Stream content to Android (unlocked only).