You can easily put whatever’s on your Android phone screen up on your TV for the whole room to see, whether it’s holiday photos or a video chat.
We’ve broken it all down into some simple steps to help you out.
What is screen mirroring?
The clue’s in the name. Screen mirroring lets you ‘mirror’ what’s on your phone to your TV screen or external monitor, without needing to plug it in. The TV will show exactly what’s happening on the phone, so if you’re playing a game or a film, any movement or pauses will happen in real-time on the TV screen too.
Although an actual mirror will flip what you see horizontally, screen mirroring won’t do this, it just replicates what’s on your phone to the TV. It’s a useful feature for showing off content, like your pictures and videos, and can even come in handy at work for documents and presentations.
How to screen mirror your Android device
Usually, screen mirroring needs some software on both the device you’re sending from and the TV you want to show the content. How you do it will depend on whether you’ve got a Smart TV or not, so let’s take a look.
Mirroring from an Android phone to a Smart TV
Most recent Android devices will have some sort of screen mirroring software built-in, so here’s how to mirror to your Smart TV.
1. Make sure your Smart TV is turned on and connected to the internet.
2. On your Android phone, open the notification panel and look for screen mirroring or something similar. Different versions of Android will use different terms, so watch out for what your phone does.
3. Your phone will search for ‘available devices’. Tap the name of your TV when you see it in the list. If you don’t see it, double check that it’s not gone into standby mode and that it’s connected to the internet.
4. Your phone should connect to your TV and start to mirror the screen automatically.
5. When you’re done, just open the notification panel on your phone and tap screen mirroring (or whatever your handset says) again to turn it off.
Mirroring from an Android phone to a non-smart TV
To get your phone to connect wirelessly to a TV that doesn’t connect to the internet on its own, you’ll need an accessory to help you. One of the easiest to use is the Google Chromecast, so these steps will show you how to use one to mirror your phone to your non-smart TV.
1. Set up your Google Chromecast with your TV. Make sure you set it up on the same Wi-Fi network that your phone is connected to.
2. Now your TV is just like a Smart TV. You can use the same steps as above to mirror from your phone onto the big screen.
The great thing about a Chromecast is that it’s small enough to take with you anywhere. So if you’re going to see one of your friends or family members who you know always has the same channels playing, you can take it with you can bring it with you and surprise them with something new right there on their own TV.
What’s the difference between screen mirroring and screen casting?
Screen casting is the same as media streaming, and the big difference between this and screen mirroring is the way the content is shown on the TV.
When you’re casting, you can display the content you want, such as playing a video, and then use your phone to do something else without the playback being interrupted, so in effect your phone is being used as a media streamer.
Need more help?
Here’s even more advice on setting up a smart TV. Need more help in choosing a new TV? Our TV buying guide is a great place to start. You can also chat to one of our expert colleagues in-store. They’ll be able to give you the lowdown on loads of great smart TVs and accessories.
