The reason they were called that is becaus a lot of early models use ultrasonic rather than infrared or radio so they made a loud clicking noise. My grandparents and aunts were familiar with those so they still called all remotes the clicker.
The thing is, growing up we had a Bang & Olufsen TV remote that had clicky buttons - really, very satisfyingly clicky - even though it used RF, but I just assumed all remotes were like that and that’s why they were called clickers.
The reason they were called that is becaus a lot of early models use ultrasonic rather than infrared or radio so they made a loud clicking noise. My grandparents and aunts were familiar with those so they still called all remotes the clicker.
The thing is, growing up we had a Bang & Olufsen TV remote that had clicky buttons - really, very satisfyingly clicky - even though it used RF, but I just assumed all remotes were like that and that’s why they were called clickers.