You came home with 40 photos worth showing, and now five people are leaning over one shoulder to squint at a six-inch screen. One of them holds her reading glasses out like a magnifying lens. Somebody keeps saying “go back — the one with the boat.” Eight feet away, a 55-inch screen sits doing nothing. Which of the five paths below is yours comes down to your phone and your TV. Find your row and skip the rest.
| Your phone | What’s on your TV | Your path |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone | Apple TV box | Path 1 |
| iPhone | Samsung, LG, Sony, Vizio | Path 2 |
| Android | Chromecast or Google TV | Path 3 |
| Android | Samsung or LG | Path 4 |
| Any phone | Old TV, weak Wi-Fi, hotel | Path 5 |
Path 1 — iPhone to an Apple TV
First, put your iPhone on the same Wi-Fi network as your Apple TV — the step everyone skips.
- Open Control Center. iPhone X or newer: swipe down from the upper-right corner. iPhone 8 or older: swipe up from the bottom edge.
- Tap Screen Mirroring. If it isn’t there, tap the + in the upper-left corner, tap Add a Control, and add Screen Mirroring.
- Pick your Apple TV from the list.
- If an AirPlay passcode appears on the TV, type those digits on your phone.
- To stop: Control Center → Screen Mirroring → Stop Mirroring.
For the 40 photos, skip mirroring entirely. Open Photos, select them, tap Share (the square with the arrow out the top), then tap AirPlay and pick your TV. That sends the picture and nothing else, so the rest of your camera roll stays private. To advance hands-free, select the photos, tap the three dots (More), and tap Slideshow.
Path 2 — iPhone to a Samsung or LG, no box needed
Apple builds AirPlay 2 into Samsung, LG, Sony and Vizio sets. Flip one switch tonight, no box required.
Samsung. Press Home, open Settings (All Settings on some sets), then follow your model year. Sets from 2022 through 2026: Connection → Apple AirPlay Settings → AirPlay on. Sets from 2018 through 2021: General → Apple AirPlay Settings. That one word — General versus Connection — is why so many guides send people in circles.
LG. Press Home and open Home Dashboard — the same door reads Home Hub or ThinQ Home Dashboard on other models, and all three land in the same place — then AirPlay → AirPlay and HomeKit Settings → AirPlay on. LG’s whole 2026 line — G6, C6, B6 and W6 — ships with AirPlay 2 inside. Then the phone side matches Path 1.
Path 3 — Android to a Chromecast or Google TV
Google requires three things at once: Android 8.0 or later for the Google Home cast controls, the same wireless network name on both devices, and the two within 15 feet (4 meters) of each other. Check the distance first — moving to the couch fixes it.
Swipe down from the top and tap the cast tile, labeled Cast, Screen Cast, Smart View or Wireless Projection depending on your brand, then pick your TV. No tile? Open Google Home, tap your TV in the device list, then tap Cast my screen and confirm with Cast screen. Android then warns that it is about to capture everything on your screen — tap Start now. To stop, expand the cast notification and tap Disconnect.
For photos, beat mirroring again: in Google Photos, open the album, tap More (three dots), tap Cast, pick your TV, then swipe from one photo to the next — those are Google’s own steps, and only the photo you are on reaches the screen. Works from an iPhone too.
Path 4 — Android to a Samsung or LG
Samsung calls it Smart View, and the official steps are three lines long.
- Swipe down from the top right to open Quick settings and tap Smart View.
- Select your TV under Available devices and tap Start now. Tap Continue if asked, and enter a PIN if prompted.
- Your screen appears on the TV. To disconnect, open Quick settings and tap the Smart View icon.
Samsung’s rule is flat: devices must be on the same Wi-Fi network as the TV. This year, Samsung’s 2026 sets ship with Google Cast built in, and select 2023 and 2024 models (the S90D OLED is confirmed) are getting it by firmware update, model by model. Before you count on it, update the TV and look for a Google Cast entry in its settings menu. Whichever door lists your TV is the right one. On LG, press Home, open Screen Share, then tap the cast tile on your phone.
Path 5 — the cable, when the network won’t cooperate
Nothing here touches Wi-Fi, which is why it works in a hotel room.
iPhone 14 or older (Lightning): Apple’s Lightning Digital AV Adapter, around $50, mirrors at up to 1080p and covers iPhone 5 through 14. iPhone 15 or newer (USB-C): Apple’s USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter, model MW5M3AM/A, around $70, with an HDMI port good for up to 4K at 60Hz and compatibility through iPhone 17 Pro — that 4K figure describes the port, not your mirrored screen. Its USB-C port charges the phone while it plays.
Then switch the TV’s input to that HDMI port — the step people forget while staring at a black screen.
The catch nobody tells you
Your TV doesn’t show up. No error, no message — just an empty list. Nine times out of ten it’s this: both devices must be on the same network, and a router broadcasting 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz under two separate names counts as two networks. Google says it in two separate sentences: same network name (SSID), and same band. Check the band, not just the name.
Discovery uses mDNS, a broadcast that travels only inside one network. Split bands are separate broadcast domains — the same Wi-Fi to you, two neighborhoods to the packet. And the defaults pull your devices apart: phones prefer 5 GHz, a Chromecast falls back to 2.4 GHz on a weak signal.
Four cousins produce the same empty list:
- The guest network is a third network. With five people in the room, odds are good somebody’s phone is on it.
- AP isolation (client isolation) is on in the router. Same name, same band, still invisible. Google says it must be off.
- A VPN is running. It swallows the mDNS broadcast and empties the list. Turn it off, then pull down to refresh.
- Smart Connect, Band Steering or Single SSID in the router — why a network looks like one name and behaves like two.
The check takes ten seconds: read the network name in your phone’s Wi-Fi settings, read the name your TV reports, compare them character by character. A trailing “-5G” is a different network.
Two honest exceptions: an Apple TV (3rd generation Rev A, model A1469, or later) can find your iPhone over Bluetooth with no shared network, and Smart View rides Miracast, which also connects directly. Both companies still print “same Wi-Fi network,” so follow that.
One rival cause fits your exact situation. On the Apple TV, open Settings → AirPlay and HomeKit → Allow Access. Set to Only People Sharing This Home, a visitor’s phone never appears no matter how right the network is — and the homeowner swears the Wi-Fi is fine, because his own phone works. Choose Anyone on the Same Network, and check the Require Password toggle.
Don’t test this for the first time with five people on your couch. Do it tonight: turn AirPlay on or tap the cast tile, get your TV to appear once, and confirm both devices read the same network name letter for letter. Ten quiet minutes now beats twenty minutes of everyone watching you tap.