I built a free TV remote app because every competitor turned into a subscription trap

I was trying to turn my iPhone into a simple TV remote.

Nothing fancy — just something that could connect over Wi-Fi and let me control my TV quickly when I lose the physical remote or don’t want to deal with it.

But when I searched the App Store, almost every app looked the same:

Weekly or monthly subscriptions
Features locked behind paywalls
Ads before you can even use basic controls
“Free” apps that are basically unusable without paying

Some of them charge $5–$10 per week just to use basic remote functionality.

And that felt a bit strange to me — because this isn’t a “premium productivity tool”. It’s a utility.

A TV remote should feel like something that just works when you need it.

So I built a very simple iOS app called UTV Remote.

The goal was intentionally minimal:

No account required
No subscription traps
Works over local Wi-Fi
Basic controls: navigation, playback, keyboard input
Supports Roku and Samsung TVs

I didn’t try to build a “super app” or add unnecessary features. I just wanted something that actually works for the basic use case.

What surprised me most wasn’t the technical part — it was how normalized subscriptions have become even for simple utilities like this.

It almost feels like every app category eventually gets pushed into a SaaS model, even when the user expectation is just “this should work.”

I’m curious what others think:

Do you think utility apps like this should still be subscription-based, or has the App Store economy gone too far in that direction?
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/utv-remote/id6781496220