DrCWO’s rooWATCH App: Control Roon with Apple Watch and Siri

Roon software for managing multi-room systems and streaming audio received a remote control in the form of an Apple Watch smart watch, and even with Siri voice assistant capabilities. The watch application was developed by Dr. Carl-Werner Oehlrich of CertainAudio GmbH, known as DrCWO in the Roon community.

The interface gives access to almost all the functionality of Roon right from the hand. With Siri, you can control playback, search for tracks, artists, playlists, radio stations.

DrCWO's rooWATCH App

But everything is not so simple. To control Roon from Apple Watch, you need to add the rooExtend server to the setup. It runs on the popular single-board RasperryPi (RaspberryPi Zero works, but RaspberryPi 4 works best). In a mini-computer, you need to install a microSD card with a capacity of at least 16 gigabytes with software from Dr. Olrich. The system is offered as a subscription. The Apple Watch app itself is available for free in the Apple App Store, the rest requires a license.

DrCWO's rooWATCH App

In the US, Roon’s Apple Watch management app, rooWATCH, costs $28 for an annual license, $69 for a lifetime license, and $3 for a 7-day trial license.