If you are looking to mirror the screen of your Android device, then you probably know that Android doesn’t have built-in mirroring functionality by default. Some Android manufacturers may ship their phones with a screen mirroring app, but most don’t.
In this article, we are going to provide you with 10 Android screen mirroring app suggestions. Additionally, we’ll give you some general guidelines on preparing your Android device for screen mirroring to your PC computer or even to your TV.
Let’s get started without further ado!
Use Cases For Mirroring Android Phone Or Tablet Screen To TV/PC
Screen mirroring allows you to transfer the contents of your screen to a PC or TV. Among the most common uses of screen mirroring are:
- Watching movies on a bigger screen for a more immersive experience.
- Better visuals in mobile games.
- Watching photos you’ve just captured, which can be insanely useful because phone screens not always can adequately transfer the feel of the scene.
- Participating in meetings, making viewing presentations, charts, and images easier.
- Instead of emulating an Android device in Android Studio, you may test your apps straight on your Android device. Most screen mirroring apps allow you to remotely install apks, which is very neat for developers!
These use cases are just off the top of the head, and there are plenty of other things that you may do. Pretty much, anything you can do on your smartphone or tablet may be done more conveniently via a large screen.
What’s great about modern Android devices is that they support screen sharing not only via cables but also wireless connections, as long as your Android device and the TV that you want to cast the image to are on the same network.
Are There Any Prerequisites For Screen Mirroring?
Typically, screen mirroring apps rely on USB connections, so you will need to enable USB debugging on your Android phone or tablet to be able to mirror your screen. Here’s how this is done:
- Open Settings.
- Scroll to the bottom of the Settings app and select System.
- Again scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap About phone.
- Locate Build number and tap it multiple times until you get a prompt that you’ve been granted access to developer features.
- Navigate back to the home screen of Settings and locate Developer options.
- Locate USB debugging and toggle it on.
Since Android phones have different UIs, your user experience may vary, and so may the location of all the menus.
Back in the days, you also had to root Android to be able to mirror your screen. Fortunately, these days, you don’t have to do this, unless you have an old Android phone.
Top 10 Apps To Mirror Your Android Screen To PC Or TV
As of this post’s writing, Android didn’t have any built-in screen mirroring or casting functionality. For any Android device, you have to install a dedicated app to gain access to screen mirroring.
Some Android device manufacturers may ship their devices with pre-installed screen mirroring functionality, but most do not.
Anyway, if you are 100% sure that your Android device doesn’t contain any screen mirroring apps out of the box, then you could make use of the following screen mirroring apps for convenience.
Note that the ranking below is in no particular order.
1. AirDroid
AirDroid is one of the most downloaded and popular screen mirroring apps on Android. It had nearly 600k ratings and 4 stars as of this post’s writing, so although it’s not perfect, it does seem to have satisfied a lot of users.
Anyway, here’s what you are getting with AirDroid:
- Screen mirroring. Needless to say, this is the meat of AirDroid. AirDroid allows you to mirror your screen wirelessly as long as both your devices are on the same network.
- Notification mirroring. Via its desktop client, AirDroid mirrors Android notifications and allows you to reply to messages directly from your computer.
- File transfer. You may transfer files from your Android device to Windows, Mac, and Linux machines, as well as other mobile devices. This can be done either remotely or within the same network.
- Android remote control. From your connected PC, you may remotely control your Android device.
- Find Phone. Via the web client, you may find lost Android phones that have AirDroid installed.
AirDroid requires registration for access to all its features, which may be annoying to some users.
2. ApowerMirror
ApowerMirror isn’t even remotely as popular as AirDroid, but it also has some interesting features. Here’s what you are getting:
- Screen mirroring with audio. ApowerMirror can mirror your Android screen via USB or Wi-Fi. Not only that, but ApowerMirror allows you to mirror your Android screen to other mobile devices. Thanks to its microphone casting feature, ApowerMirror can also cast your audio to your PC or Mac, which is pretty cool.
- Notification mirroring. Every notification – like new messages or incoming calls – are displayed on your connected screen.
- Remote control. ApowerMirror lets you remotely control pretty much any aspect of your Android device.
- Screen capture and recording. ApowerMirror allows you to perform screen recording while mirroring.
ApowerMirror lacks some of the features of AirDroid – like the lost phone feature, for example – but it’s a pretty solid alternative to AirDroid if you end up not liking it.
3. Vysor
Vysor is fairly simple and is focused on one thing – mirroring your screen. Via Vysor, you may mirror your screen, watch movies, play games, or edit documents with a mouse or keyboard.
Vysor supports wireless screen mirroring too, allowing you to share your screen remotely.
If you don’t need any fancy features, then Vysor may work for you. Not only that, but what you may also like about Vysor is that its installation file size on Google Play is just about 4.6 MB! This is about 10 times less than the beefiest options on this topic.
With that said, the help portal of Vysor is extremely underwhelming. Good luck getting any issues solved since Vysor only provides a support forum for posting issues.
The rating of this app is consequently low-ish – 3 stars based on 10k ratings.
4. Mobile to PC Screen Mirroring/Sharing
Mobile to PC Screen Mirroring/Sharing might be a solid option for older Android phones. This app hasn’t been updated since September 2018, so it might have issues on modern Android devices. On older Android versions, it may be the best option you have.
Anyway, Mobile to PC Screen Mirroring/Sharing allows you to mirror your mobile screen to a PC, laptop, or Mac computer. Additionally, you may use this app to mirror your Android screen to a Smart TV.
Mobile to PC Screen Mirroring is intended to connect your Android device to your TV or computer via Wi-Fi, so your device and the screen should be on the same network.
This app is very light as well, requiring less than 4 MB of space on your device.
5. Screen Stream Mirroring
Screen Stream Mirroring is yet another highly popular Android screen mirroring app on Google Play. It’s fairly high-rated too, boasting 4 stars after nearly 230k ratings.
This app also seems to be frequently updated, though the last update as of this review was in August 2020.
Feature-wise, here’s what Screen Stream Monitoring can do for you:
- Screen mirroring. Screen Stream Monitoring allows you to share your Android screen with Blu-ray players, smart TVs, and computers.
- Remarkably, Screen Stream Monitoring allows you to broadcast straight to Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Live, and other platforms. This app can also display a Twitch chat overlay while you are streaming.
- Google Cast compatibility.
With these in mind, Screen Stream Mirroring has a focus on streamers, which is reflected in its name. This is a fairly interesting approach, and the direct broadcasts to streaming platforms really make Screen Stream Mirroring stand out.
6. Mobizen Screen Recorder
In case you think that screen mirroring on Android isn’t exactly what you want, give Mobizen Screen Recorder a shot.
Screen recording isn’t available on most Android devices, so this app might be super-useful for many of our readers.
This app allows you to record your Android screen in Full HD, 12 Mbps bitrate, and 60 fps. This should be sufficient quality for most Android phones and tablets, except for the top-tier devices that support higher resolutions and higher screen refresh rates.
Mobizen Screen Recorder has built-in editing functionality as well. The editing features are fairly rudimentary, but on an Android device, you shouldn’t really expect to be able to become an editing guru.
7. Screen Mirroring with TV/PC
Screen Mirroring with TV/PC is fairly little known, but it actually has pretty positive feedback – 4 stars based on nearly 1k ratings! But do note that this app hasn’t been updated since May 2019, so it may not work well on modern Android versions.
With that said, if you have an older Android device and didn’t like Mobile to PC Screen Mirroring/Sharing, this app may be a way better option for you.
In terms of functionality, Screen Mirroring with TV/PC is fairly basic. It allows you to mirror your screen to TVs, laptop & desktop computers, and Mac devices. However, when mirroring to TVs, Screen Mirroring with TV/PC mirrors both audio and video, which is pretty awesome.
What we also like about Screen Mirroring with TV/PC is that it’s very lightweight – just about 4 MB!
8. Cast Phone To TV
Among all reviewed screen mirror apps, this is actually the highest-rated one – it has 4.5 stars based on nearly 12k ratings! Although 4 stars don’t make other of our picks bad, you could expect this app to deliver more reliable operation.
Not only that, but Cast Phone To TV is very lightweight (6 MB) and had been updated just about a week before the date of this post’s writing.
Now, in terms of features, Cast Phone To TV is fairly simple – it doesn’t have phone location, recording, or broadcasting features.
However, Cast Phone To TV delivers all the basics, allowing you to mirror your Android screen to Samsung, LG, Philips, Xiaomi, and a few other smart TV brands and models.
As long as your TV supports Miracast, Cast Phone To TV should work seamlessly for you.
Cast Phone To TV connects your Android device to TVs via Wi-Fi as well.
Judging by user feedback, Cast Phone To TV works remarkably seamlessly, though your experience may vary depending on your Android device and TV model.
With all that said, keep in mind that Cast Phone To TV doesn’t support computers. This might be a big issue for some readers, but you still have plenty of other options to choose from.
9. Castto Cast To TV
If Cast Phone To TV doesn’t seem to work for you, then give Castto Cast To TV a shot. Castto Cast To TV isn’t as highly-rated as the previous mirroring app, but it might work well for you if Cast Phone To TV doesn’t seem to cut it.
In terms of functionality, Castto Cast To TV is pretty much identical to Cast Phone To TV. Castto Cast To TV again relies on Miracast, so it should work with any modern TV fairly well too.
One thing to keep in mind with this app – it was last updated in June 2020 as of this post’s writing. This isn’t that long ago, but if the developers don’t update the app in the future, it may become unusable as TV and Android software moves forward.
10. spacedesk
Finally, we have spacedesk – a super lightweight and fast screen mirroring app. The size of this thing is listed as only 1.2 MB on Google Play! Aside from the small size, spacedesk developers seem to keep their app up to date too.
This app supports screen mirroring via Wi-Fi or USB tethering, so you do have options for connectivity.
spacedesk is primarily intended for screen mirroring from Android to PC and Chromebooks, so if you don’t need any TV connection, this app might be excellent.
But keep in mind that Mac computers are not supported by spacedesk, which may be a downside for some readers.
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