* The tips written here is not officially supported, and I don’t take any responsibility caused by using this Technique. Try it with your own responsibility.
Contents
Watch browser contents on TV more easily
When you are browsing on the Internet with PC or Smartphone/Tablet in home, especially when streaming video contents, have you ever wanted to see it on big TV display?
Android TV initially don’t support browser app (It is officially stated that Android TV may not have browser app initially), but you can install browser app on Android TV. For example, there is Web Browser for Android TV on Play Store now. Also, SONY Android TV contains Pre-installed OPERA browser for now.
So you can watch any web contents on TV!! But the problem is,,, even if you have a specific website which you want to watch on TV in mind, navigating to this website on TV is quite troublesome since we usually don’t use keyboard to search contents within TV app (Android TV supports mouse and keyboard, so you can actually connect these devices to use TV like a PC, but TV is used with relaxing mode so few people uses such a way).
So I was thinking when I’m browsing on PC, it is nice if we could cast current URL on PC to Android TV so that we don’t need to type anything on TV side. And yes! we can utilize Android platform to achieve this request:)
* Google cast also achieves this request, but sometimes it doesn’t work in my environment. So I will post different solution here.
Google Chrome to Phone app & Chrome to Phone extension
Google Chrome to Phone is made by Google, achieves to share links between your PC’s chrome and “device”. Of course the “device” is supposed to be a Android phone, but we can install Android phone’s app on Android TV as well by using the technique mentioned at
Ok, so what we will install is following,
- Android TV side: Get Google Chrome to Phone apk, and install it manually.
- PC side (Use chrome browser): Install “Google Chrome to Phone Extension” on your Chrome browser.
After installed app and plug-in, you need to set up both of them by logging in with same Google account.
How to use
After set up done, it is very easy to use and it is conveniently automated. We can cast PC side’s website URL to TV side and TV side automatically launch browser app to show this URL.
- PC side: Launch Chrome and go to your favorite website that you want to show on TV
- PC side: Click top-right icon
Basically that’s all! Then, - (This procedure might be necessary) Android TV side: launch browser app
- Android TV side: browser app automatically move to the URL specified by PC side.
Enjoy watching web contents on big, beautiful TV display 🙂
Conclusion
Now the PC side web page can be sent to TV side by just one click, it enhanced my opportunity to enjoy many kinds of web video contents on TV. I realized some of the HD stream videos are quite nice to watch with TV.
If the PC and TV is in the same room, you can even utilize TV as second (or third) monitor to stream video/music even it is not connected via HDMI cable.
Let me know your idea of life hacking technique of Android TV as well!!