Using your smartphone or a tablet app to control your robot is easy. There are numerous apps for the older NXT MINDSTORMS robot kits; over time there will be several for the EV3. The official LEGO app is called LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Commander, and is available on Google Play for Android and on the Apple App Store for the iPhone and iPad. When pairing with your smart device, you need to make sure to select the special iPhone/iPad/iPod option on the Bluetooth setting on your EV3 brick.

Robot Commander has controls ready to use for all of the robots from the Home Edition kit. However, you will want to create your own robot and controller. LEGO Commander will control assigned motors. You can create screen-based virtual joysticks, sliders, switches, or buttons. You can see the virtual joystick at the top left of the preceding screenshot. You can also use the accelerometers built into your smart device to control the robot's motors by tilting your smart device. LEGO Commander will allow you to take readings from the sensors available in the Home Edition, the Touch Sensor, the Color Sensor, and the Infrared Sensor. The bullseye in the preceding screenshot will light up when the Touch Sensor is pushed in. Instead of discrete numerical information, LEGO Commander will present a visual reading for the Color and IR Sensors. The brightness of the Color Sensor icon is proportional to the intensity the Color Sensor reads, as you can see in the circle below the joystick. The distance reading from the IR Sensor fills up the trapezoidal icon in the preceding screenshot.