On a Smart TV, you drive Dashie entirely with the remote that came with your TV or streaming device — no keyboard or mouse needed. Once you learn a handful of buttons, you can move between widgets, dig into your calendar, flip through photos, and open settings in seconds. This guide walks through exactly what each button does.
If you haven't installed Dashie yet, start with the Setting Up Dashie on Your Smart TV guide and come back here once it's running.
The five buttons you'll use
Almost everything in Dashie happens with just five controls on your remote. Here's the map — the rest of this guide builds on it.
- 1 Direction pad (arrows) Move the highlight around — between widgets and in and out of the menu.
- 2 OK / Select (center) Pick what's highlighted: focus a widget, open its options, choose a menu item.
- 3 Back Step back out — leave a widget, or close a menu.
- 4 Menu Open the sidebar menu. (Pressing ◀ Left from the edge does the same thing.)
- 5 Volume Adjust Dashie's volume for voice replies, timers, and music.
How navigating works
Dashie is laid out as a grid of widgets — your calendar, photos, weather, and so on. At any moment one thing is highlighted, shown with a border around it. The arrows move that highlight; OK acts on it.
There are three "depths" to keep in mind, and you move between them with OK (go deeper) and Back (come back out):
- Browsing the dashboard. The arrows move the highlight from widget to widget. Nothing is "open" yet — you're just pointing at things.
- A widget is focused. Press OK on a widget and it comes forward and takes over the arrows, so now they control inside that widget (scrolling the calendar, flipping photos). Press OK again to bring up that widget's hint menu of extra options.
- The sidebar menu. Press Menu (or ◀ Left from the edge) to slide in the sidebar, where you switch views and reach the Control Center.
Whenever you're not sure where you are, press Back a couple of times — it always walks you back out to the plain dashboard.
Button quick reference
What each button does depends a little on where you are:
| Button | Browsing the dashboard | Inside a focused widget | In the sidebar menu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arrows | Move the highlight between widgets | Navigate inside the widget (scroll, change weeks, flip photos) | Move up/down the menu items |
| OK / Select | Focus the highlighted widget | Open the widget's hint menu / pick an option | Open the highlighted item |
| Back | Open the sidebar menu | Step back out to the dashboard | Close the menu |
| Menu | Open the sidebar menu | Step back out to the dashboard | Close the menu |
| Volume | Adjusts Dashie's volume anywhere — voice replies, timers, and music | ||
Working with widgets
Every widget follows the same rhythm — highlight it, press OK to focus it, use the arrows, and press OK again for more options. Here's how that plays out on the widgets you'll use most.
Calendar
With the calendar focused, press ◀ Left / Right ▶ to move to the previous or next week, and ▲ Up / Down ▼ to scroll up and down within the view. Press OK again to reach more options — like changing the number of days shown or switching to a month view. You can also hold OK for about a second to step through individual days, then individual events, to read the details of any one of them.
Photos
With the photos widget focused, the arrows move back and forth between photos. Press OK again to bring up options to put photos in full-screen mode, upload new photos, or change the photo widget's settings.
Weather
With the weather widget focused, the arrows move between the daily and hourly forecasts. Press OK again to change the weather widget's settings.
Other widgets behave the same way — highlight, focus with OK, use the arrows, and press OK again for options. Once the pattern clicks for one widget, you already know them all.
The sidebar menu
The sidebar is how you switch between views and reach Dashie's settings. Open it by pressing Menu, or by pressing ◀ Left when the highlight is already at the left edge of the dashboard. Move ▲ Up / Down ▼ through the items, press OK to choose one, and press Back (or Right ▶) to close it again.
From the sidebar you can:
- Switch views — jump between your enabled dashboard views.
- Change the theme — light, dark, and other looks.
- Control audio & music — toggle sound and reach playback controls.
- Open the Control Center — via the "more" (hamburger) button.
The Control Center
Open the Control Center from the sidebar's "more" (hamburger) button to set up the rest of Dashie — a sleep timer for when you want the screen to go dark and wake up, zoom preferences, time and date format, and more. Navigate it with the arrows and OK, just like everywhere else, and press Back to leave.
Don't type on the TV
Typing with a remote is painful, so Dashie keeps it to a minimum. Anything that needs real typing — managing photos, adding and updating calendars, setting up family profiles — is easier from the mobile site at app.dashieapp.com. There's a QR code in the menu that jumps you straight there on your phone, and whatever you change syncs back to the TV automatically.
Support and feedback
We're here to help and we love feedback. Reach out any time at support@dashieapp.com or through the website, and we'll get back to you quickly.