- This is an update
to our 2019 Android Screen Mirroring Tutorial.
There's been a lot of updates since then
and there's now better apps and better methods
to mirror your Android to your TV, your PC, or Mac.
So, there's really three main use cases
for wanting to share your Android screen.
The first is to share to a computer for live streaming
or for recording walkthroughs and tutorials.
The second is sharing your phone screen
so that you can monitor what's going on
while you're recording videos using the back camera.
And the third is getting games or videos
from your small phone screen
onto a much bigger screen or TV,
like one you might have in your living room.
But we're gonna cover off all of them in this video
and make sure you stick around
to hear out all of the options,
so that you know you're leaving here
with the best option for you for your use case.
So, option number one
is a piece of software called Reflector.
Now, this is something that you download and install
on your PC or Mac,
and this will allow you to wirelessly share your Android
and iPhone screen directly to your computer.
So, once you've got the app installed,
you'll just need to, on your phone,
enable screen sharing or screen mirroring,
and this can be different
depending on which Android device you're using.
For most of the recent ones,
you just wanna swipe down from the top
and then you should have a quick access setting
for screen casting, screen mirroring, sharing, or linking.
It can be called different things.
And then when you select that,
you should see your computer as an option.
From there, you'll likely be prompted
to enter a four-digit number from your computer screen
as a safety or security measure.
And then your phone screen will start sharing immediately.
Now, Reflector supports both portrait and landscape
and will automatically rotate as you rotate your phone.
You can also hit record and create recordings
of what's going on your phone,
making this great if you wanna create tutorial
or how-to videos.
And you've also got a heap of recording settings in there
that you can configure up as well,
like the quality of your recording, the resolution,
and even the frame rate.
If you're gonna be doing live streaming,
Reflector is awesome for that too.
You can easily just share the Reflector window
that has your phone screen on it
in any of your live streaming software,
like OBS, Ecamm, you can just select that window
and your phone screen's gonna appear in there.
Reflector also supports mirroring
from multiple devices at the one time.
So, you're not just limited to bring in one phone screen.
I'm not sure what the use case would be,
but you can bring multiple phone screens
into your computer all at once
and you can record them all at once as well.
And to fancy up your recordings,
you can also add a phone image
as a border around the recording
or for your live streaming as well,
just to add a bit more polish.
Probably, the biggest thing to be aware of, though,
with Reflector, is because the connection
is happening over wireless,
if your wireless isn't great,
if you're a long way from the modem,
or it's a slower connection,
then, that can mean that you're having
a lower quality image coming through,
or potentially even some dropouts.
But if you've got a solid WiFi connection,
then it's going to work great.
The picture quality is awesome.
I've never had a problem with it
and this was one of our top picks
back in the 2019 video as well.
Now, in regards to pricing,
there is a free trial version available,
which does have a watermark.
So, if you wanna give it a go before you buy it
to see how it works for you,
then you've got that as an option.
But in terms of buying it,
it's only gonna set you back 17.99
for an individual license
to install on either a Mac or a PC.
So, you need to buy a license for Mac or for PC
or for $2 extra, 19.99.
You can buy a license that will work on either Mac or PC.
So, ridiculously cheap
considering what you're getting access to.
So, overall, Reflector is an amazing option
for screen mirroring
whether it's to record,
just to view your phone screen for live streaming,
or even for playing games on a bigger screen.
The next option is a Windows-only option.
It's free and it's called Windows Connect.
Now, this is something
that used to come pre-installed on Windows,
but it's now something that's an optional free download.
So, you wanna check, first off,
that you have it installed on your computer,
just press on Start and start typing in Connect.
If it shows up, it's installed.
If not, you just wanna open up Settings,
then go over to Apps,
click on Optional Features, Add a feature,
and then you wanna install Wireless Display.
Once that's installed, then, again,
click on Start, type in Connect,
and you should have the app there.
So now with Connect running,
it's gonna work pretty much the same as Reflector did.
We can now share from our phone,
our phone screen, into that app.
So, on the phone, we wanna, again,
pull down from the top into that Quick Access menu,
go and find your screen sharing button, cast,
mirror screen, share screen, whatever it's called for you
and then you can select your Windows computer from there.
Now, again, this one will work
in both portrait and landscape modes
and automatically rotate as you rotate your phone.
Now, there is no recording capabilities in this Connect app,
but it is something that you could use
with live streaming software
to bring your phone into your live streams this way
by adding that Connect app as a video source,
and you could potentially even use
your live streaming software, like OBS,
to actually record your phone screen that way too.
But there is no built-in recording
or any more advanced settings like we had in Reflector.
This one is purely just to display
what's on your phone screen.
Now, one thing I noticed
was I couldn't get this working on my Google Pixel
running the latest Android 12 operating system,
but it worked in no problem at all
on multiple Samsung devices.
So, I'm not sure if that's something to do
with the latest version of Android
or if there's something specific
that the Google Pixel phone is missing,
but it definitely worked fine on Samsung.
So, this would be something you wanna check
with your specific device.
The next option is to use a Chromecast or a smart TV
to mirror your phone to.
If you're not aware, a Chromecast is a little HDMI dongle
that you plug into the HDMI port on a TV
or on a computer screen
and it's gonna essentially give it
a lot of smart TV capabilities.
And this is something that a lot of more recent smart TVs
have built in, screen mirroring capabilities,
and some of them even have a built-in Chromecast.
Now, depending on your TV make or model,
this could be something that you need to go through
in your settings and enable screen mirroring.
But for the most part, every time I've done it,
it's already been enabled by default.
You just wanna make sure that your TV or your Chromecast
is connected to the same WiFi network.
And again, over on your Android device,
you wanna scroll down from the top,
select your screen mirroring or screen casting option,
and then your TV or Chromecast should appear.
Once that's selected,
your phone is gonna be mirrored to those devices.
So, this method is gonna be great
whether you wanna watch videos,
share photos, or play games on a bigger device.
Or also, if you've got a TV or a computer monitor
that's gonna be near where you're filming,
with your smartphone, you can use it
to wirelessly mirror your phone screen that way as well.
But because there's no computer involved in this process,
it does mean that this isn't gonna be a good option
for anything live streaming or screen recording.
And again, as with the previous ones,
because this connection is happening over WiFi,
if you do have a bad WiFi connection,
it can result in a bad screen mirroring experience, too.
That was a mouthful.
And the next option is to use an HDMI adapter
to directly connect your phone into your TV
or into a computer screen.
Now, this is something where you could just get
a USB-C to HDMI adapter, that will work fine,
or you could even get a USB-C hub,
which a lot of them do have an HDMI port in as well.
Also, giving you then access to USB ports
and potentially even pass through power
so that you can charge your phone at the same time.
But once you've connected the adapter to the phone
and run an HDMI cable through to the TV,
then your phone will show up full screen.
Again, this will work portrait and landscape,
but this time, because it's directly connected,
you're gonna have no issues with WiFi interference,
or dropouts, or poor WiFi signal.
So, it should give you a really clear image
with next to no latency or delays in the pitcher.
And again, this can be a good option for playing videos,
sharing photos and things,
or playing games on a bigger screen,
or also hooking this up to your phone
while you're recording videos
so that you can monitor on a bigger screen
what's going on while you're in front of the camera.
Now, this method is something that's gonna be supported
by a lot of Android devices out there.
A lot of Android devices for the last few years
have had this capability, but not all phones.
So, you will wanna make sure that your phone
does support using an HDMI adapter
and hooking it up to a bigger screen
before you go down this route.
And also, be aware that this method
is gonna chew through your phone's battery pretty quick.
So, if you can, grab an HDMI adapter
that does allow you to power it
and charge your phone at the same time.
Now that you know how to mirror your Android screen,
I've got two videos linked on screen for you all designed
to help you level up video creation with Android.
One of them is all around filming with Android,
the other is about the best video editing apps on Android.
Check those out, and I'll see you in the next one.