Roku Shares ‘Night Owl’ Trick That Instantly Improves TV Watching When It’s Dark – Plus Time-Saving Bonuses

ROKU owners need to try a smart TV mode that’s perfect for when you watch at night.

It’s available as a free benefit and takes just seconds to set up.

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The feature is called Private Listening and is designed to let you listen to your TV through headphones.

This means you won’t disturb other people and you can fully enjoy the soundtrack of a movie or music channel.

Roku explained: “Are you a night owl who likes to stream while others are sleeping? Or maybe the noise outside is interrupting your streaming experience? Don’t worry!

“With many Roku devices and the Roku mobile app, you can use your headphones of choice to hear all the action loud and clear.

“And the Roku mobile app lets you share the fun with up to four connected devices!”

HOW TO SET UP PRIVATE LISTENING ON ROKU

Before using Roku’s private listening feature, there are a few steps you need to take to prepare.

First, make sure you have the latest version of Roku’s mobile app installed.

Then follow the app’s instructions to ensure your mobile device is connected to Roku.

This will involve having both devices connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Also, note that when you turn on Private Listening, no audio will come out of your TV speakers.

When everything is ready, you can start.

HOW TO USE PRIVATE LISTENING ON ROKU

First, make sure your headphones are plugged in.

It will work with connected wired headphones or paired and connected Bluetooth headphones.

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Then open your Roku mobile app and tap the Remote icon in the navigation bar.

Then tap on the headphone icon which will activate private listening.

You can then adjust the volume before putting on the headphones.

If you want to turn it off, just tap the headphone icon again.

It is also possible for multiple people to connect to private listening at the same time.

In fact, four devices can be connected to your Roku simultaneously.

OTHER ADVANTAGES OF THE ROKU APP

There are two other advantages associated with using the Roku mobile app.

The first is that it serves as a backup Roku remote in case you lose your physical remote.

Roku explains: “Have you ever settled into your couch, perfectly comfortable for a night of streaming, when you suddenly realize the remote is on the other side of the room?

“With the free Roku mobile app, there’s no need to get up! It lets your phone do everything the Roku remote does and more.”

And secondly, you can use the Roku mobile app to do voice searches.

There are lots of voice commands to try, so test a few.

Roku Voice Commands – The Official List

Here are some voice commands to try with your Roku mobile app, as revealed by the TV giant itself…

• Find a specific movie or show
  “Harry Potter”
  “find Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
  “Show me Silicon Valley episodes”
  
• Search for your favorite actors or directors
  “Halle Berry”
  “search for comedy films with Will Farrell”
  “find all Martin Scorsese films”
  
• Browse popular genres
  “show me comedies”
  “find suspense films”
  
• Find content of a genre on a channel
  “show documentaries on Sky Store”

• Launch a streaming channel
  “go to YouTube”
  “launch Prime Video”
  “BBC iPlayer”

• Playback commands
  “fast forward”
  “go back”
  “break”
  “to stop”
  “resume”
  “Continue”
  “to jump”
  “next”
  “repeat”
  
• Closed Caption Commands
  “enable closed captioning”
  “hide subtitles”
  “show subtitles during replay”
  “activate subtitles during mute”
  “What’s my subtitles setting?”

• Advance a specific period of time
  “forward 15 minutes”
  “skip 5 minutes”
  “forward 3 minutes”
  “forward 10 minutes”
  
• Rewind (or rewind) a specific period of time
  “Come back half an hour”
  “go back 30 minutes”
  
• Restart the video from the beginning
  “restart”

• Search for content
  “play Taylor Swift”
  “play Daft Punk on Spotify”
  “play S-Town on TuneIn”
• Interact with your streaming service
  “thumbs up/down”
  “like/dislike”
  “What song is this?”

• Swap devices
  “change the input to HDMI 3”
  “switch to TV antenna”
  “switch to Blu-ray player”
• Change over-the-air broadcast channels
  “channel”
  “channel disabled”
  “tune in to NBC”
  “find channel 7.1″
  “previous channel”
  
• Launch or hide Live TV Channel Guide
  “open live TV guide”
  “open channel guide
  “hide channel guide”
  
• Adjust volume levels
  “Turn up the volume”
  “low volume”
  “mute”
  “set volume to 50%”
  “set volume to 5”

You can use it to find specific movies or shows, content from favorite actors, start streaming channels, or control media playback.