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Remotes, volume buttons and phone motion

During a performance you can't tap around in the app — but you can secretly press a button in your pocket, click a remote, or tilt the phone. Each of these is a trigger: you choose an action for it, and the app runs it. (The actions and the action picker: Triggers and actions.)

Add-on Where
Volume buttons none Settings → Input methods → Volume buttons
Remote controls (any Bluetooth remote / keyboard) Advanced Input Methods Settings → Input methods → REMOTE CONTROLS
Phone motion control Advanced Input Methods Settings → Input methods → PHONE MOTION CONTROL

Volume buttons

Switch on Control app with volume buttons, then give actions to:

  • Volume UP, Volume DOWN — a single press
  • Volume DOUBLE UP, Volume DOUBLE DOWN — two quick presses
  • Volume LONG UP, Volume LONG DOWN — hold the button

More settings:

  • Test volume buttons → START: press the buttons and the app tells you what it detected (single press, double press, long press) — the actions don't run while testing. Great for practicing the timing.
  • Default volume: after every press the app sets the volume back to this level (default 15%), so the volume never runs away. Below 10 or above 90 it leaves the system volume alone.
  • In-app mode / Background mode: button actions (default) or change volume. With change volume the buttons work as normal volume buttons there. With Background mode = button actions the buttons work while MysterSmith runs in the background too.

Timing

The app waits 0.4 seconds after the last press to decide between a single and a double press — so a single press runs a little later. A double press is two presses within about 0.3 s. Three or more presses do nothing.

The voice recognition START / STOP / CANCEL actions can't be put on the volume buttons (the microphone and the buttons would interfere).

On iOS, the volume buttons keep the app awake in the background with a silent audio loop — it uses a little more battery.

Remote controls

Almost every Bluetooth remote, presenter clicker or mini keyboard works like a keyboard. MysterSmith lets you give every button its own actions — in a mapping.

Creating a mapping

  1. Mapping templates → Manage opens REMOTE CONTROL MAPPINGS.
  2. Type a name in the last field and tap +. (The first mapping becomes the active one. Only the active mapping works — tap the circle in front of a mapping to make it active.)
  3. Tap Edit, then Register a button and press a button on your remote. Repeat for every button.
  4. Give each button a Single click and a Double click action, and a label if you like.
  5. Save and close.

Settings of the mapping:

  • Use mapping for every routine — the same buttons and actions in every routine (and on your other phones). Switch it off to use the mapping in this routine only.
  • Save as new mapping — a copy of it, in the current routine.
  • CONFIG SWIPES (Up / Down / Left / Right) — buttons that act as swipes on the Swipe screen (and on the Fake homescreen with Enable swipe input).
  • MORSE KEYS (Dot / Dash / Space / Delete / Send) — buttons for the Morse input.
  • Timing test — shows how fast your remote sends its presses, and whether a press counted as SINGLE or DOUBLE.

In the REMOTE CONTROLS section: Active mapping and Double click max. delay (default 250 ms).

No long press

Most remotes don't tell the phone when a button is released, so the mapping has single and double clicks, but no long press. If a button has no double-click action, its single click runs at once, without waiting.

Remote modes

The Remote Control group of the action picker can switch your remote into a different mode — for entering information without looking:

  • remote mode: default, text/numbers, cards, swipe, morse code
  • enter number (0-9), delete last digit/character, send text/number to buffer
  • send swipe UP / DOWN / LEFT / RIGHT

The current mode shows as a small icon in the top-right corner.

Remotes with their own driver

These remotes are connected in MY DEVICES and have their own button settings in their device panel: Atom 2 (Atom button actions), Pitata Palm Remote, Wilson Nexus Remote, Thumper v2 (Short press actions, Long press actions), Matt+ (short / long presses, up to three, and combinations) and A.T.C. (short, x2, x3, long press). See Supported devices.

Phone motion control

Trigger actions by moving the phone — e.g. turning it face down on the table, or tilting it in your hand.

  • Motion control: none (OFF), orientation, rotation (flat) or tilt (4 sides).
  • Activation method: when the motion control starts listening: manually (with an action), phone face down, or when a screen opens — fake homescreen, fake lockscreen, Doodle screen, BLACK screen, swipe screen, Calculator screen.
  • Activation delay (2–60 s): how long after the activation it starts.
  • Repeat delay (0–30 s, default 5): after a trigger, how long until it listens again (0 = no repeat).
  • Vibration feedback and Voice feedback (it says e.g. "Motion active", "rotate left") — for practice, or for secret confirmation.

The triggers (each with its own delay and action):

Method Triggers
orientation Phone face up, Phone face down, Phone standing, Phone upside down
rotation (flat) Rotate left, Rotate right — the phone lies flat and still for 2 s first
tilt (4 sides) Lift top side, Lift right side, Lift bottom side, Lift left side — from face up or face down

Actions in the Phone Motion Control group: motion control START, STOP, START/STOP, and orientation control, rotation control (flat), tilt control (4 sides) (switch to that method and start it).

The motion is only watched on the performance screens (not while you are in Settings). A small icon shows while it is active.