I'm curious if people actually use the IR in place of their TV remote as in the promo. For me personally, I think the friction of having to fire up an app first would preclude me from ever using it in earnest.
The loss of the tactile ability to find the buttons, especially without looking, kills it unless you’re in a real bind.
In airports, bars, waiting rooms: absolutely.
I aslo used it when I was working away from home and was trying to plug my laptop into a TV HDMI port. I had no remote and couldn't switch the input manually but was able to do it with the phone.
I've switched to using my phone as a TV remote, exclusively, but I realize I'm a bit of an edge case.