My favorite OnePlus 15 feature is one I least expected

• OnePlus’ IR Remote app is effortlessly simple
• After initial neglect, I now rely on my OnePlus 15’s IR blaster
• More smartphones should bring back the IR blaster

Situated proudly amongst the pantheon of excommunicated smartphone features, right alongside the 3.5mm headphone jack and the microSD card slot, is the venerable IR blaster. This small bit of handset hardware was once commonplace within the Android world, only to vanish into obscurity a few short years ago for seemingly no rhyme or reason.

Or so I had thought.

As it turns out, our IR blaster-free phone market is an entirely domestic status quo: a great many Chinese flagship handsets from the likes of Xiaomo, Honor, and Oppo continue the tradition of offering infrared tech within their mobile gadgets — the reality is that these devices simply never reach the North American market, and so they remain largely out of consumers’ reach.

IR (infrared radiation) blasters are small emitters that allow you to interface with RF-based appliances, with the most common use case involving television remote controls.

With that being said, there is one mainstream smartphone brand that hasn’t wavered in its commitment to bringing the IR blaster to an American audience, and it’s the Oppo-owned OnePlus. Despite the company’s latest-and-greatest OnePlus 15 Android flagship conforming to the competition in terms of physical design, and despite the tragic loss of the Alert Slider button this generation, the phone does at least carry forward its predecessor’s time-honored infrared blaster support.

OnePlus’ IR Remote app is effortlessly simple

IR Remote comes preinstalled on the OnePlus 15

Initially, I thought OnePlus had actually ditched the IR blaster altogether with the 15. Unlike the OnePlus 13, as well as most older Android phones with IR built-in, the top of the 15 lacks the distinguishing small dark dot that normally signifies IR compatibility. Thankfully, this isn’t at all the case: for this hardware generation, OnePlus has cleverly stowed the IR blaster away within the phone’s camera module, which is a slick and visually pleasing approach.

The company includes a native IR Remote application within its OxygenOS Android skin, and, I must say, the app is pretty intuitive to navigate through. Setup only takes a few taps, and there’s a wide selection of appliance types and brands to choose from (different brands rely on different IR codes). Once you’ve set up your various connections, it’s easy to rearrange and rename entries as you see fit.

Unlike some other solutions on the Google Play Store, OnePlus’ IR Remote app features a very clean user interface that’s responsive without any visual clutter, superfluous features, or incessant advertisements and upsells. All in all, the app provides an appreciably solid end-user experience, and it’s one I haven’t felt the need to replace during my testing.

After initial neglect, I now rely on my OnePlus 15’s IR blaster

Infrared radiation came in handy when I least expected it

Despite my lamenting over the loss of the IR blaster within the North American phone market, I’ll be the first to admit that I used the feature very little when I had it readily at my disposal on older HTC and Samsung handsets. After initially playing around with the IR Remote app on my OnePlus 15, I figured history would repeat itself and that I’d fail to make use of the tool in any meaningful way this time around.

This all changed when I began the process of decorating my home for the holiday season. After carefully placing a Christmas village on top of my electric fireplace, I grabbed its corresponding remote control and hit the ON button (who doesn’t love a warm, crackling fire aesthetic at this time of the year?), only to find that the remote was unresponsive to my command.

Soon, I found myself setting up several other household gadgets to work with the IR Remote app on my OnePlus 15.

After failing to resuscitate my fireplace remote with a fresh pair of batteries, I was ready to concede convenience entirely and to instead rely on the unit’s less handy built-in power button — and then I remembered my OnePlus 15’s IR blaster. Within minutes, I was back to remotely activating my electric fireplace, and it’s all thanks to a smartphone feature I had largely taken for granted up until this point.

Soon, I found myself setting up several other household gadgets to work with the IR Remote app on my OnePlus 15. In particular, my oscillating tower fan is a pleasure to activate from across the room, and I’m glad to no longer have to worry about keeping track of my television’s cheap in-box remote control, either.

More smartphones should bring back the IR blaster

You don’t know what you have until it’s gone

I understand that IR blasters are a somewhat niche tool, but, as far as I’m concerned, they merit inclusion in all smartphones out of sheer practicality. I’ve long felt that FM radios should make a return to our modern-day handsets, and I feel that infrared fits into this exact same category of ‘old technology that deserves live on in the present day.’

I’m hopeful that OnePlus will continue to ship future flagships with IR blasters, and I’m hoping now more than ever that Samsung, Google, Motorola, and other Android phone makers follow suit with their next-generation product offerings. For the sake of remotely controlling my electric fireplace for many more festive winters to come, here’s to the ushering in of a mobile IR blaster renaissance.