Forum Discussion
Use mobile device as PowerPoint controller and more
Answering this old question, since there is no satisfactory solution from Microsoft yet. I've developed my own solution for controlling PowerPoint slides from any phone and being able to see speaker notes and slide previews. Unlike other third-party solutions, there is no need to install mobile apps on your iPhone or Android device. Instead, there is a small native Windows app that sits alongside PowerPoint on your PC. This app provides a web interface, so you can control the presentation from a web browser on your mobile device as long as it's in the same Wi-Fi network. The app is called:
ExtraPPT Remote
and it is available in the Microsoft Store. It has a free trial, and there are no subscriptions, ads, in-app purchases, or data tracking. In addition, the app has a soundboard for PowerPoint, so that while controlling the slides, you can also dynamically include sound effects.
I hope this helps.
Disclaimer: I'm the app developer here.
I have downloaded the app and was succsessful in getting the app to communicate with my phone. Once my phone read the IP address from the QR code my presentation appeared on my phone. However I get no response when I try to run the presentation from my phone. I press the "Next Slide" button on my phone and nothing happens. Your help would be much appreciated. I am using an iPhone13.
Ian, first of all, if none of these suggestions help, please contact ExtraPPT support directly. You can find the address on the About page of the ExtraPPT website. Unfortunately, I cannot post it here due to forum rules.
- If you can see slide previews and buttons on your phone, it means that at least partial communication is working, which is good. If the button for navigating to the next slide is not working, it might be that your mobile browser is partially blocking JavaScript. Please check if you have any content-blocking browser extensions active. Also, if you're not using Safari on an iPhone, try using it.
- It's very easy to check if JavaScript is working properly. Try pressing the Soundboard buttons. If you hear sounds from your presentation PC with PowerPoint, it means that it's working properly and the problem probably lies on the PowerPoint side of things.
- In this case, try opening the URL in a desktop browser on the same presentation PC. You can see the URL in the ExtraPPT Remote application window. Open it in your browser before switching to presentation mode with PowerPoint. When the presentation is running full-screen, you can switch to your browser by pressing Alt-Tab. Try navigating with the button then. If it's not working, it means that PowerPoint is somehow blocking the controlling interface. In this case, the only option is to try reinstalling both PowerPoint and ExtraPPT Remote.
I hope this helps.