But why should there be two different icons on your phone? Itās a question of elegant product design and user interface.
A user wants to listen to Roon and itās intuitive to run the Roon app ā donāt even think about choosing which version to run.
The two apps were designed and built by different teams. They are not similar as far as I understand. Personally, I see zero reason to combine them even if that was possible.
I use Microsoft Word to write and Microsoft Excel to crunch numbers.
Itās not simply that the apps were built by different teams, itās that the underlying network technologies involved and what needs to be done to provide connectivity between the Roon app and the Roon Server are completely different - chalk and cheese.
Roon Labs apparently have the goal to merge the two into one app (thereās been talk of āARC for the Desktopā), but itās a big ask and call on their development resources.
Itās like saying that an automobile and an aircraft are both forms of transport - why canāt we combine the two?
My thoughts exactly. I still hope both apps will be merged. I sometimes find myself opening Roon when I should have opened Roon ARC. Probably because I donāt use Roon ARC that much.
And if they are combined into one app, then some features in the one app will probably only work at home but not when mobile. Then some people will be confused, too.
I think those are terrible analogies, but weāll just agree we have a difference of opinion. Suppose that Roon did originally integrate ARC into main app since the beginning. Would anybody now advocate that it would be better if they split it into two apps?
For sure, some of the UI would need to be updated to make it intuitive for the user.
As a software developer, I understand the technical and practical reasons why Roon took the approach that they did. As a user, I feel that Roon would be a better product if ARC were integrated.
Yeah maybe, Iām just saying that itās not as straightforward as some people like to think. And during the development of ARC and the very rocky start it had, it was probably a good thing that it was separate and work on ARC couldnāt break regular Roon.
As was pointed out many times, they havenāt ruled out later unification.
Ok, do Roon is a local networking app, server and front end GUI combined, what do I use to control it when Iām not at home? Roon?
Roon on a phone or tablet will probably never have the server component built in, so we will need to ask ādo you mean Roon desktop, or Roon mobile?āā¦ which is the same distinction as Roon and Roon Remote 
Hopefully this will all become clearer with the next Roon update 
Iām confident a merge is planned for some time in the future, but for now, it may be safer (w/r to stability) to develop the two apps separately first.
Daar moet ik je eigenlijk helemaal gelijk in geven!
Translation
I actually have to agree with you on that one!
You are confused because you are using the wrong part of speech. āRemoteā in this instance is not an adjective meaning distant. It is a noun ā as in āWhere is the remote?ā ā meaning the remote control. Because that is how people refer to a remote control, as āthe remote.ā And that is precisely what Roon Remote is, a remote control for Roon Server.
AJ
After starting ROON on my device called āROON-Serverā (it is a headless windows-11 box) two tasks:
Never knew what the āApplicationā task is doing. I am not running anything except the Server or Core on this box.
I am using ROON on a separate Windows-Laptop and of course- on an Ipad.
In my opinion you are about to maximize the confusion.
There are 2 hard things in computer science: naming things, distributed systems, and off by one errors.
