# Peel

> Peel Technologies turned smartphones into universal remotes and personalized TV guides. Its decisive move was abandoning a $100 infrared accessory for software embedded in Samsung and HTC phones, which produced extraordinary distribution and more than 130 million registered users by late 2015. The same preinstallation advantage later became a liability when aggressive advertising and reported privacy problems damaged user trust.

- **Founded:** 2009
- **Headquarters:** Mountain View, United States
- **Founders:** Thiru Arunachalam (Co-founder and CEO), Bala Krishnan (Co-founder and Chief Product Officer)
- **Products:** Peel Universal Remote and Fruit, Peel Smart Remote, Peel.in, Streaming discovery
- **Notable:** Reached 50 million activations by March 2014, according to the company., Recorded 130 million remote commands on the day of the 2014 Academy Awards., Reported 90 million users and 5 billion remote commands per month in October 2014.

## Products & services

- **Peel Universal Remote and Fruit** — An iOS app paired with a $100 Wi-Fi-to-infrared accessory for controlling home entertainment equipment and discovering shows.
- **Peel Smart Remote** — An Android and iOS universal remote and personalized TV guide using built-in infrared or Wi-Fi to control televisions, set-top boxes, DVRs, and some appliances.
- **Peel.in** — A broadcaster platform that turned social links and promotions into actions such as tuning a compatible television to a channel.
- **Streaming discovery** — Discovery links for Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube content alongside live television listings.

## Achievements

- Reached 50 million activations by March 2014, according to the company.
- Recorded 130 million remote commands on the day of the 2014 Academy Awards.
- Reported 90 million users and 5 billion remote commands per month in October 2014.
- Reported more than 130 million registered users and 6.6 billion TV and movie tune-ins by November 2015.
- Distributed its software through major handset makers and offered program information across more than 100 countries.

## Latest updates

- **2017-11** — Google changed Play Store policy to prohibit lock-screen ads in apps whose primary purpose was not the lock screen, after rising concern about the practice across Android apps.
- **2019-01** — Mobile security researchers and Jamf described Peel’s preinstalled app as behaving like adware because of aggressive advertisements and permission use.
- **2019-04** — Pradeo reported that older versions of Peel Smart Remote transmitted user images to an external server; the behavior was absent from a later tested version.
- **2019-06** — Pradeo reported that Peel Smart Remote had been removed from Google Play for intrusive activity.

## Links

- Website: http://www.peelsite.s3-website-us-west-1.amazonaws.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/peel-com/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/peeltv
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/peeltv

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/peel
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-28