T9 Remote

📺 A T9-style keyboard app for Android TV that lets you type using the number buttons on your TV remote control — just like old cell phones.

Features

• T9 input using number keys (0–9) on any TV remote
• English and Spanish with instant switching
• Accented characters (á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ) via long press in Spanish mode
• Customizable key mapping — assign any remote button to toggle case, delete, or change language
• 6 visual themes for the character bar
• Advanced button mapping via adb command — detect even special remote buttons (Netflix, Prime Video, Assistant, etc.)

Screenshots

How to Use

Typing

Button	Characters
1	. , ! ? - ' 1 (+ ¿ ¡ in Spanish)
2	a b c 2
3	d e f 3
4	g h i 4
5	j k l 5
6	m n o 6 (+ ñ in Spanish)
7	p q r s 7
8	t u v 8
9	w x y z 9
0	space 0

Press a number key repeatedly to cycle through characters. The character auto-commits after 1.3 seconds, or press a different key to commit immediately.

Accented Characters (Spanish)

In Spanish mode, long press a number key to add an accent to the current vowel:

• Long press 2 → á
• Long press 3 → é
• Long press 4 → í
• Long press 6 → ó
• Long press 8 → ú

Default Special Keys

Action	Default buttons
Toggle case (abc ↔ ABC)	Channel Up
Delete	Channel Down
Change language (EN ↔ ES)	Menu, Red button

These can be customized in the Key Mapping screen.

Key Mapping

Open Configure button mapping from the setup screen.

• Tap "Add button" under any action
• Press the remote button you want to assign
• To remove a mapping, select the button chip and press OK

Reserved Keys (cannot be remapped)

Numbers (0–9), D-pad (Up/Down/Left/Right/Center), Enter, and Back are reserved for navigation and typing.

Advanced Button Mapping

By default, the app can only detect standard remote buttons. To capture all buttons (Netflix, Prime Video, Assistant, etc.), you need to enable the T9 Remote Mapper accessibility service.

Special buttons keep their original behavior outside text fields. For example, if you remap the Netflix button, it will still open Netflix when you are not focused on a text field. However, when a text field is active, the button will perform the action assigned in T9 Remote instead.

On Android 13+, sideloaded apps are blocked from enabling accessibility services unless you first allow restricted settings via ADB. You can do this using either an Android Phone or a PC — choose whichever method you prefer below.

Important: Your TV and the device you use to run the ADB command (Phone or PC) must be connected to the same WiFi network.

Android

Step 1 — Enable Developer Options

1. Go to Settings → System → About
2. Press OK 7 times on "Build number" or "Android OS build number"

Step 2 — Enable Wireless Debugging

1. Go to Settings → System → Developer options
2. Enable Wireless debugging
3. Select "Pair device with pairing code" — note the code shown

Step 3 — Pair from your Phone

1. On your phone, install Remote ADB Over WiFi from the Play Store
2. Open the app — your TV should appear under "Available Wi-Fi Devices"
3. Tap Pair and enter the pairing code from your TV

Step 4 — Run the ADB Command

Once you've done that, in the app on your phone, type in the text field this command and send it:

adb shell appops set com.example.t9remote ACCESS_RESTRICTED_SETTINGS allow

This may take up to 30 seconds to take effect

Step 5 — Enable the Accessibility Service

1. Go to Settings → Accessibility on your TV
2. Find T9 Remote Mapper and enable its switch
3. Go back to Key Mapping — you can now capture any remote button

PC

Step 1 — Enable Developer Options

1. Go to Settings → System → About
2. Scroll down to "Android TV OS build" (or just "Build")
3. Press the OK button on your remote 7 times quickly until you see the message "You are now a developer!"

Step 2 — Enable Wireless Debugging

1. Go back to Settings → System and scroll down to open Developer options
2. Find and turn on Wireless debugging (if asked, allow it for your network)
3. Select "Pair device with pairing code"
4. The screen will display a 6-digit Wi-Fi pairing code, an IP address, and a Port number (e.g., 192.168.1.50:41234). Keep this screen open

Step 3 — Pair from your PC

1. On your PC, open a Terminal or Command Prompt (you must have ADB installed)
2. Type the following command using the IP and Port shown on your TV screen:

   adb pair 192.168.1.50:41234
   

3. When prompted in the terminal, type the 6-digit pairing code from the TV screen and hit Enter. You should see a "Successfully paired" message.

Step 4 — Connect and Run the Command

1. Press "Back" on your TV remote once to return to the main Wireless Debugging menu.
2. Under "IP address & Port", you will see a new port number (different from the pairing one).
3. In your PC terminal, connect to this new port:

   adb connect 192.168.1.50:55555
   

   (Replace 55555 with the new port shown on your TV).
4. Once connected, run the final command to grant the required permission to T9 Remote:

   adb shell appops set com.example.t9remote ACCESS_RESTRICTED_SETTINGS allow
   

Step 5 — Enable the Accessibility Service

1. Go to Settings → Accessibility on your TV
2. Find T9 Remote Mapper and enable its switch
3. Go back to Key Mapping — you can now capture any remote button

Installation

1. Download the latest APK from Releases
2. Transfer it to your Android TV via USB or using "Send Files to TV" app
3. Install the APK (you may need to enable "Install from unknown sources")

Requirements

• Android TV with Android 5.0+
• A TV remote with number keys (0–9)

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Contributing

This project was developed entirely with the help of artificial intelligence.

All of the app's source files are included in this repository, so you are free to study the code, modify it, adapt it to your needs, and build on top of it.

Contributions, forks, fixes, and experiments are all welcome.