I'll be honest with you; I had no idea any of these features existed, but now that I do, I feel like I have a whole new Roku. I've switched my Backdrops on and set the photos I want to see on it (with the occasional drop into the art collections so it feels like an art TV). I've found my remote when it dropped down between the bed and the nightstand, and I've finally been able to get rid of the TV remote itself.
Roku markets itself as a way into Netflix, Hulu, and the Roku Channel (aff), but the platform doubles as a photo frame, a universal remote, and a private listening system, features that live a few menus deep or only surface in the mobile app. I tested all five on my own Streambar, Voice Remote Pro, and phone, and a couple of them work differently than Roku's own documentation suggests. Here are five great things that you can do with your Roku that have nothing to do with the content you're streaming.
Turn it into a digital photo frame
Backdrops replaced Photo Streams, and photo management now lives in the Roku app
Roku's new screensaver system is now called Backdrops, and it can display your own photos or curated art collextions when the device is idle. You can launch the app on your TV and then scan a QR code to either connect your Google Photos or pull from your own device. I found a way to set up Backdrops using the Roku app's Settings pages, where it lets me select up to 100 photos from my device and have them rotate through on the big screen when it's idle. I tend to go back and forth between my photos and some art collections that I dig, like the Jan Breughel stuff. It's so much more customized than letting Roku's themed…