How to Cast Netflix and YouTube from Phone to Roku

How to bandage Netflix and YouTube from a telephone to your Roku

A Roku Ultra (Image credit: Marshall Honorof/Future)

To learn how to cast Netflix and YouTube content to Roku, all y'all demand is a smartphone or tablet, a Roku, an Internet connectedness and a few minutes. The process is nearly entirely foolproof, and requires only a few push button presses to master. Is information technology a feature y'all admittedly, positively need in your life? Not really. Simply if you're already watching something on your smartphone and desire to transfer it to a Goggle box with minimal fuss, it's a good thing to know.

Earlier y'all begin, you'll need a mobile device with Netflix or YouTube installed, a Roku histrion, and an Internet connectedness for both devices. Both your phone/tablet and your Roku should be fully updated, and your smartphone should have enough battery life for at least an 60 minutes or so of use. Zilch catastrophic will happen if your phone dies in the middle of this process, only it does mean that y'all'll accept to revert to a remote control instead.

If you're prepare to discover out how to cast Netflix and YouTube to Roku, read on for a comprehensive guide on the subject. Be aware that the screenshots below apply Netflix every bit a guide, although the process is nearly identical for YouTube. Equally long every bit you tin notice the "cast" push, y'all'll be in adept shape.

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roku cast — (Prototype credit: Hereafter)

1. Make sure your Roku is upwards and running

Yous can bandage Netflix or YouTube content to whatsoever modernistic Roku device, so this guide should work for any Roku gadget that yous may ain. Unsurprisingly, you'll need your Roku up and running before yous bandage content to it. You don't need to have Netflix, YouTube, or any other particular app open, however. Staying on the home screen for now should be fine.

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ii. Choose what you want to watch

For argument'southward sake, let's suppose you want to cast content from Netflix. (The process on YouTube is extremely similar, but Netflix has a prettier interface for gathering screenshots.) Start past opening upward Netflix, so navigating to the content that yous want to watch.

At this betoken, you should come across a "cast" symbol in the upper-right corner of the screen. If the smartphone or tablet in question is non on the aforementioned network as the Roku, you may not meet this symbol, so take some time to correct that now, if you lot need to.

(Don't mind the blackness screen in the screenshot higher up; Netflix allows screenshots of its interface, but not of the show or movie in question.)

3. Cast your content

Remember the "cast" push in the upper-correct corner? Tap it in one case, and you should see a menu that shows all available receivers in your immediate area. Cull your Roku, and whatever yous're watching on your telephone or tablet will announced on your Tv set. If necessary, your Roku volition launch the Netflix or YouTube app, too, so you may need to wait a minute for everything to sync up.

As soon every bit your content shows upwards on your TV screen, you can now use your Roku remote to control it every bit usual. However, you can also employ your telephone or tablet as a controller, as you tin see in the screenshot above. Y'all can pause, play, modify subtitles and so forth, which is a little easier on a touchscreen than on a remote. This part of the process is totally optional, but it's worth playing with.

5. Disconnect when you lot're done

While your phone or tablet will disconnect automatically once yous close the Roku app or shut downwardly your mobile device, you tin can likewise disconnect manually. Simply hit the "cast" push one more time, and select the disconnect option.

With this information, you lot should now know how to cast Netflix or YouTube from a telephone to your Roku. If you've never tried it before, at present is as proficient a time as any.

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Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site'southward coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a scientific discipline writing groundwork, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and engineering. Subsequently hours, you lot can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.