Lost your Sony Bravia remote?

For everyday use, yes: D-pad and OK, back and home, volume and mute, input switching, power, and a keyboard for search boxes and passwords. It works on Bravia sets running Google TV or Android TV. The limit is the network — the phone talks to the TV over Wi-Fi, not infrared, so a Bravia that has dropped off the network or was set up as Basic TV cannot be reached until it is online.

That is the typical Sony failure. Of the failed connections to Sony sets the app recorded in the last 90 days, a little over half were sessions that dropped or timed out after working earlier; only about one in five failed at the pairing code. The usual causes are a TV in deep standby with its network asleep, or a phone that moved to a different band or a guest network. Wake the TV with its button, check the phone's Wi-Fi name, and select the TV again.

Then no phone app can reach it yet, and the honest fix is to get it online first. Plug an Ethernet cable from the router into the TV, or plug in a USB mouse — Google TV accepts one directly — and join Wi-Fi under Settings → Network & Internet. If the TV was on Wi-Fi before and the router changed, a phone hotspot with the old network's name and password brings it back.

BRAVIA Connect, or the Google TV app. Sony runs two official routes at once. BRAVIA Connect is the newer, model-specific app covering BRAVIA 9, 8, 8 II, 7, 5, 3, 2 II and the A95L. The Google TV app is the platform-wide alternative and is not Sony-specific at all.

Unlike Samsung and LG, Sony gives no single answer for where the physical control is — its own support notes that placement varies and points owners at the manual for their model. Reported positions include the underside near the logo, the rear panel and the side edge, depending on series and year. Once the TV is on a network the Google TV app is the practical route into settings. A USB or Bluetooth mouse is the documented alternative on Google TV, and it works when no remote exists at all.

The Google TV pairing PIN fails silently more often than it errors. The causes are a phone and TV on different networks — a guest SSID, mesh isolation, or an active VPN on the phone — or firmware that is behind. One thing not to confuse it with: Sony has a completely separate PIN system for Parental Lock, and the two are unrelated. Turn off any VPN, put the phone on the same SSID as the TV rather than a guest network, and update the TV’s firmware before retrying the pairing screen.