How to cast to Roku and mirror your Android phone to watch Twitch and more

If you own a Roku-based smart television or have one of Roku’s streaming players, you have access to thousands of native streaming apps. However, some services and applications are not supported by a native Roku app, notably web browsers. That’s where the Roku screen mirroring feature comes in. But how do you cast to Roku from your Android device, and how do you mirror to Roku from your Android phone?

In this article, we will show you exactly that. We will also offer a few app suggestions you can mirror to Roku that are currently unavailable on its platform.

What’s the difference between casting and mirroring?

Casting and mirroring content is often mistakenly thought of as the same. In reality, they are two different things.

What is casting?

When you cast content from your phone to your Roku TV, you only cast the content from one app to a native Roku app. For example, if you want to watch a YouTube video on your Roku TV, you can just cast the content to the YouTube app installed on your Roku device. You can then control the playback of that content from your mobile device. You can also turn off your phone, but continue to watch and control the media on your Roku TV.

What is mirroring?

Mirroring means displaying the entire Android phone or tablet screen on your Roku TV. So, for example, you can play games on your Android device while your friends watch the gameplay on your Roku television. You can also show other streaming apps that are not native to Roku. However, once you shut off or disconnect your Android device from your Roku, the screen will return to the regular Roku home screen.

How to cast to Roku from Android

Roku TVs and streaming boxes technically support Google Cast, but the experience is very unreliable, in our experience. For starters, both the Roku and Android apps need to support such feature. And even if they do, for some reason many Android devices have issues doing this. If you’re lucky, you may be able to do it. Here are the steps.

Casting to Roku from Android:

1. First, make sure your Android device is on the same home network as your Roku device.
2. If the mobile app on your phone supports casting to a native Roku app, open it up and go to the video content you want to cast. Tap the casting icon in the app.
3. If you have more than one Roku TV or device on your network, you will be asked to pick which one you want to display the content.
4. Finally, the native Roku app should start casting the content from the mobile app to the Roku TV.

If this doesn’t work, which is quite likely, you can mirror your screen. Let’s talk about this in the next section.

How to screen mirror from Android to Roku

If, like us, you can;t get Google Cast to work on Roku, you can try screen mirroring. The only downside to this method is that the TV will literally copy whatever the screen is displaying. This means you’ll need to keep the phone screen turned on while mirroring.

There is a real benefit to screen mirroring, though. Mirroring displays whatever you are viewing on your Android device. This means there are no limitations as to what you can stream! You can display your browser or any app.

How to mirror your screen from Android to Roku:

1. First, check if your Android phone or tablet will let you mirror your screen to Roku. Some phones may label the feature differently. For example, LG phones may label their casting feature either as Screen Mirroring or Screen Share. Samsung phones use the term Smart View for screen mirroring. Google Pixel phones, oddly, use the term Cast.
2. Once you find your phone’s screen mirroring feature, tap on it.
3. If you have more than one Roku TV or device on your network, you will be asked to pick which one you want to display the content.
4. The Roku screen will then show a notification asking you if you want to cast your screen from your device. You can select “Accept” or “Always accept” if you’re going to keep using this same device to mirror your phone’s screen. Alternatively, you can also select “Ignore” or “Always ignore” if you decide not to mirror your phone’s screen.
5. The phone’s screen should then be displayed on your Roku TV.

If you need additional instructions for using Apple devices, we have a guide for using Ariplay with Roku.

Apps that you should screen mirror or cast to Roku

Twitch

Roku used to have a native Twitch app, but it stopped offering it some time ago. If you now want to watch all the great Twitch content on Roku, you must screen mirror the Android app to your Roku TV.

Samsung TV Plus

If you have a Samsung mobile phone or tablet, you have access to the company’s free video streaming service, with on-demand movies and TV shows, live streaming of news, and more. You can cast the app or mirror your screen to your Roku device and watch the content on the big screen.