Connecting your phone to the TV has never been easier, so strap in and let’s see just how easy it really is.
Getting your phone onto the TV is super easy. You can either use the various casting methods or force it through with a cable. On iOS and Android, it differs depending on what you want to connect to.
Neither is too difficult to do, but of course, Apple does throw in some hurdles. To use the iOS casting without an external app, your designated device will need to have AirPlay. For instance, the projector from XGIMI runs Android but has AirPlay baked in.
How to connect Apple iPhones to the TV
If you have an Apple TV, or say, a device like a Roku stick with AirPlay enabled, you can scroll down from the right-hand corner to bring up the Control Center. Here, choose the two rectangles overlayed on top of each other to bring up the screen mirroring options.
Choose your device and after a brief pause, you’ll be seeing the full phone screen. You might want to turn on Do No Disturb during this or change your notification settings to ensure that nothing unwanted appears while it is being mirrored.
Other than this, you can use a Lightning to HDMI cable to skip this and plug in your phone or iPad straight to the TV.
If you want to connect to something like a TV that doesn’t have AirPlay but supports casting, there are a few apps to use. The one we found works best is the ‘TV Cast for…’ apps. As with any app store, there’s not going to be a reliable, free option. A lot of these a riddled with ads, and in-app purchases. However, the TV Cast for… apps uses IP addresses to stream content.
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How to connect Android phones to the TV
On Android, as it has the universal Miracast protocol baked into the operating system, if you have a device that supports casting, you probably can just beam it over with something like the Google Home app.
Other apps in the Google Play Store will try to replicate this, similar to the iOS App Store. However, be warier on Android, as sometimes Google’s vetting process will miss a few apps, causing a malicious actor to get through.
You can also use any USB-C to HDMI cable to start using the phone on the TV. Samsung, Huawei, and a couple of other brands will even have a desktop environment for you to work in, rather than your standard phone user interface.
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