In the meantime - there is way to do this yourself on macOS and Windows.
In Finder / Windows Explorer - go to your Documents\Zwift folder
Open the file called knowndevices.xml. This file stores the list of devices that you’ve already paired with.
Edit the name of your device in each line. Avoid using special characters like apostrophes, ampersands, quotation marks, etc. Do not mess with the numbers in each line.
Next time you run Zwift the names of your devices should appear as you wish.
Note: this is possible on Windows / Mac. Mobile operating systems (including tvOS) are much more locked down security-wise, so they will not let you dig into system folders.
Now that is sorted - is there a way to block devices? I never ever want EliteRealTrainer to pair as power or controllable, yet zwift sometimes does this automatically even though i have never selected it myself.
First step for you is to go into knowndevices.xml and remove that line. While the signal will still be visible, it should no longer auto-pair. If you don’t know which line - delete all the individual <DEVICE> </DEVICE> lines, and pair to your trainer fresh as though this is a new installation of Zwift.
Context question: do you have an ANT dongle on your computer? ANT Controllable signals are recognized quicker than Bluetooth because the BLE Controllable signal won’t broadcast until Zwift has bonded to the BLE Power signal. I have this situation too, and I’m told it’s the nature of ANT vs BLE for the Controllable signal.
Are you on PC/Mac? It will not work for iOS / Android / tvOS.
Are you on the same PC/Mac, or did you switch to a different one? Your customized knowndevices.xml file is stored on that local machine only, (i.e. it won’t sync across devices).
I have 2 pairs of Zwiftplay controllers, and ride with my 10 y.o. son both irl and in Zwift at the same time, running 2 instances of Zwift on the one PC. Pairing the devices isn’t difficult but remembering which of the 4 device IDs is whose, is!
It would be really great to be able to rename them to something easy like B-Left B-Right and F-Left and F-Right, and have it remember/recognise and use the new device name each time we connect.
When I pair devices to my Garmin watch via Bluetooth I can edit the device name easily on the watch. This should be a breeze for the Zwift team - allow device to be renamed when paired, or even marked as favourite.