I have recently purchased a cheap USB-C dongle that I can control TVs and Air Cons and whatever via an app on my android phone.
Having it hanging out of the phone is clumsy and awkward, but otherwise works surprisingly well. I wonder if there's an app / program that can command the usb dongle in Linux.
I have looked at lirc, but it seems to be more geared toward receiving IR than sending, but maybe I'm reading that wrongly.
FYI - current android app is ZaZa Remote
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... e&hl=en_AU