Streaming content players are one of the star products of recent years in the world of technology. And it is that they turn our television into a smart device, saving from buying a Smart TV that does not fit into the budget of everyone, as is the case with Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV .
There are more exponents that participate in this sector, but precisely we are going to deal with these two devices, since they are closely related to the theme of this article. It turns out that if we have the Amazon player instead of Google, we can turn the first into the second. In other words, use Fire TV as if it were a Chromecast .
Is it worth doing?
Amazon Fire TV is the great alternative to the product created by Google. It offers many options, with an ever-widening catalog of apps – it didn’t have Y-Tube for a while – and it already has its own app to send content from your mobile phone to TV, without resorting to that ‘Mirror Mode’ that doesn’t it always worked properly. However, it still has several limitations.
In addition to not having the rest of Google apps, the biggest problem comes when we want to share a movie or series from a streaming web page. And it is that Fire TV is not compatible with this type of content, due to the absence of an app called ‘Web Video Caster’ , which allows sending videos from the web browser, a function that Chromecast does have. However, it is not necessary to change one for the other, we can still use Fire TV and have access to this functionality.
Convert Amazon Fire TV to Chromecast
Therefore, there is still room for hope, since thanks to an app we can achieve this compatibility. The app in question is called All Screen, which we can download for free both on Google Play in the Amazon Store, although we are interested in doing it from the company owned by Jeff Bezos. This program emulates the operation of a Chromecast , so it would already be compatible to send content and videos from web pages to our TV.
To do this, while on the Amazon Fire Stick TV, we go to the “Apps” section located at the top of the TV, or we can also look for it directly in the magnifying glass in the left corner. Next, we choose our device to send the app and the download will begin immediately. On the other hand, we must do the same on the smartphone , although this time it is enough to download it from the Google Play Store.
Once installed on both devices, we will start the app on TV, first, and then on mobile. Within the Android version we have several options to send content from the web, either by copying the URL of the page in question, or by retransmitting navigation through Google Chrome. For the first, we go to the option of “Paste the link”, and for the second option, click on “Web browsing”, although it is still in beta for its correct operation.
AirScreen: the alternative option
Like medical consultations, we always look for an alternative as a second opinion, and here it will be no less. If we have already tried All Screen and it has not worked for us, or we simply want to change the app, Air Screen is the best one to send content. What does not change is the procedure to obtain it, since it is the same.
The difference is that it will not be necessary to download this app on the mobile device, only on Amazon Fire TV, although it will be necessary to have the Google Home app installed . Once this first step is done, to send content to the TV, we will enter Google Home, click on the menu with the three horizontal bars, and then select “Send screen or audio”.
There we will see the option of the devices to send, of which we will use a device called ‘AS-AFTS’ , which will allow us to share web content. When selected, we go to Google Chrome and from the mobile we can already send the videos we want to television.
