- This is an update to our 2019 iPhone
screen mirroring tutorial.
There's been a ton of updates since then,
and now, there's even better apps and methods
to mirror your iPhone to TV, PC, or Mac.
So whether it's for screen recording,
for livestreaming, or you wanna play a video game
on a bigger screen, I'm gonna run
through the best tools to do it.
So there's really three main use cases
for wanting to share your iPhone screen.
The first is to share to a computer for livestreaming
or recording walkthroughs or tutorials.
The second is to share your screen to a larger monitor,
can be your computer screen or a TV
for when you're recording videos using the back camera
on your phone so that you can monitor and see
what's going on, and the third one is for getting
your videos or your games off that tiny screen
and onto a big TV in maybe your living room,
so we're gonna cover off all of these in this video,
and there's actually a few different ways
to do each of them.
Each way has some advantages and some disadvantages,
so I strongly suggest sticking around to make sure
that you're getting the easiest one
for what you're looking to do.
Option number one is using QuickTime on Mac.
Don't worry, PC users.
I got you covered in the next one, but if you're on a Mac,
this is a great option.
All you need to do is plug your phone
into the computer using a lightning cable.
Go ahead and open up QuickTime,
and choose File: New Movie Recorder.
Click the little arrow next to the record button,
and select your iPhone, and hey, your screen
is now mirrored to your computer.
Now, this will work in both portrait and in landscape,
and you do have the ability to hit record and to create
videos of your screen recording here in QuickTime as well.
One thing to note, though, if you are recording,
the moment you do rotate your phone, the recording
will stop, so you will wanna set the orientation,
portrait or landscape, before you hit record,
and you've also got the ability here with QuickTime
to now use this with your livestreaming software as well,
so what you need to do is open up
your livestreaming software: Ecamm, OBS,
or whatever you're using, and choose screen share,
and then you can bring in this QuickTime window,
which now has your phone screen on it.
So this is a great option not for just viewing
what's on your phone but also recording
and livestreaming as well, and because you're connecting
over a cable and not over Wi-Fi, that means there's next
to no latency or delay, and it's gonna give you
a really high-quality image.
Now, the other thing that's worth knowing is if you are
gonna be using QuickTime to mirror your phone screen
while you're using the built-in camera app on your iPhone,
it'll work fine in portrait, but it actually won't rotate
over to landscape if you start filming in landscape.
It used to work fine not that long ago,
but it doesn't seem to work on any of the new devices.
So you can still use it if you're going to be creating
portrait videos, or if you wanna create landscape videos,
just use a different app like Filmmaker Pro,
and your phone screen is gonna mirror through
to your computer phone, so you can still monitor it
that way, but the next option I've got for you
will also get you around this problem.
So option number two is using a piece of software
called Reflector, and this is something you download
and install on your Mac or PC, and this will let you
wirelessly share your phone screen to your computer.
So once you got the app installed,
you wanna make sure that your phone and your computer
are on the same Wi-Fi network.
You wanna swipe down from the top on your phone
and select Screen Mirroring, and then you'll see
your computer listed in there.
When you select that, you might be prompted to enter
a four-digit PIN number as a security measure,
and then your phone screen will show up on your computer.
Now, just like with QuickTime, you can now share this window
with your livestreaming software.
So this is a great option for livestreaming.
You also have recording capabilities,
so you can create videos in Reflector as well,
and you've got a lot more options around quality
and frame rates than you do with QuickTime,
and Reflector will also automatically rotate
your phone screen as well, even while you're recording,
and using the built-in camera app on iPhone too,
making it really a great option all round.
There's also a ton of extra features
in Reflector, like the ability to bring in multiple
phone screens or device screens onto your computer at once,
and even the ability to bring up a border
or an overlay image of a phone or an iPad
for your screen recording as well.
Just add a bit more polish.
Now, probably the biggest downside with Reflector
or any of the other apps and solutions
that we're gonna cover that use Wi-Fi
or wireless to run the screen mirroring
is that you're using wireless,
so it can be really good if your Wi-Fi strength
and reception is really good, but if it's not,
if you've got patchy Wi-Fi, or your Wi-Fi router
is old, and the transfer speeds aren't that good,
then that can give you a bad experience.
It can give you low-quality video feed,
choppy video, or even drop-outs on your screen mirroring.
Now, in all of my tests, I think it is awesome.
That was one of our top picks two years ago,
and it's still one of my top picks today,
but you just need to be mindful, if you've got bad Wi-Fi,
you're probably not gonna get the best out of it.
Now, in terms of pricing, there is a free trial version
available that you can download and try and test this out
and see how well it works for you,
but to purchase the app and remove the trial watermark,
it's gonna cost you 17.99 US for either Mac or PC,
or you can buy a bundle pack for 19.99 US,
which is gonna give you a license to use on either.
Overall, like I said, this is one of my top picks.
I think the quality is awesome.
I think the usability and the app is awesome,
and the amount of features and control you have in there
make it a really solid solution.
Option number three is to use AirPlay,
which is built into your phone.
It's built into the latest Mac operating systems.
It's also in a lot of smart TVs and Apple TV as well.
So if you've got any of those devices,
then you already have all you need
to be able to mirror your phone screen.
Now, if you don't wanna use AirPlay on your Mac computer
or laptop, you will need to make sure that you're running
the latest Monterey operating system, but the process
is pretty much what we showed you with Reflector.
On your phone, you'll wanna swipe down from the top
and select Screen Sharing, and all of your
compatible devices will show up there on screen.
So just select the device you wanna mirror to,
and your phone screen is gonna appear on that device.
Now, this is something that Apple TVs had built in
for a long time, but it's so cool to see
that so many more new smart TVs that are integrating
AirPlay in there as well.
Now, all of these will work in both portrait and landscape.
They'll all let you play videos
and play games on a bigger screen
or on a different device, but none of them
will let you record what's coming through the AirPlay feed,
and in the case of mirroring to your computer screen,
it actually takes over the whole computer,
and you currently can't do this in a window.
You can't resize it down and have multiple things going on.
It literally takes over your entire computer screen
or multiple screens.
If you've got multiple screens connected to your computer,
and you start mirroring your phone screen this way
over AirPlay, it will take over both screens.
So again, not really a dealbreaker, but something to be
aware of because this rules out using this method
for livestreaming because you won't be able to have
any other apps on the screen at the same time.
The next option for mirroring your phone screen
is to use livestreaming software,
and there are so many different options out there
for livestreaming software on Mac and PC.
My favorites that let you easily bring in your phone screen
are Ecamm Live and ManyCam, but yeah,
there's lots of others too.
With both of these, you just need to plug your phone
into the computer with USB, and it's going to show up
as a new video source.
From there, you can use it as part of your livestream.
You can create video recordings, or you can just use it
as a bigger screen to see what's going on on your phone.
Now, I will say with this method of using
livestreaming software, it's really gonna be of benefit
to people that maybe you already have
those livestreaming programs or are going
to be livestreaming with their device.
You could use it just to mirror your phone screen
and to do simple recordings as well,
but that's probably something that Reflector
or QuickTime could do easier and cheaper,
but if you are gonna be livestreaming,
and your livestreaming software supports bringing
your phone in, then this can be
a great way to do it and save you using
additional software like Reflector as well.
Now, if you wanna find out more about livestreaming software
and our top recommendations and even tutorials
for livestreaming, I'll have some
linked in the description box below.
The next option is to use an HDMI adaptor
and directly connect your phone into a TV
or into a computer screen, so for this,
you will need to purchase an HDMI adaptor.
You can pick them up on Amazon for as little
as 25 to $30, but you're just gonna plug that adaptor
into your phone and then run an HDMI cable
from that adaptor into your TV or into your computer screen,
and the biggest benefit of connecting your phone
to your TV or your computer screen this way
is that there's gonna be no lag,
and there's gonna be no delay.
There's gonna be a really high-quality image coming through
because you're directly physically cabled
between the two devices, but that'll also mean
it is really just making your phone screen bigger.
This method is not gonna be great for recording
or livestreaming but can be perfect for watching movies
or playing games, especially if you don't have access
to Wi-Fi or an Apple TV device.
So those are my top options right now
for mirroring your phone screen.
The one that I personally use the most is Reflector.
The beauty of it is is it works on Mac and PC
but also iPhone and Android, and you can use it
for all of those main use cases: for livestreaming,
just for mirroring your phone,
and for doing content recording as well.
So now that you've got your phone mirroring sorted,
if you wanna learn how you can create better videos
with your iPhone, check out the video linked on screen,
where I take you through a complete filming process
end to end to help you get better results faster.
I'll see you in the next one.