How to connect your iPhone or iPad to your TV

When you’re trying to show off videos, photos, and other visual content from your iPhone or iPad, there are too many times when the small screen just won’t do. Fortunately, you can connect those devices to your big-screen TV through several different methods.

You don’t even need a fancy smart TV to do it. We’ll show you several easy methods for screen mirroring, ranging from using a basic HDMI adapter to sophisticated wireless streaming.

Keep in mind that if your goal is to watch streaming services on your television, mirroring your iPhone or iPad is neither necessary nor the most practical solution. Instead, you can buy a wireless display devices.

Connect an iPhone or iPad with an HDMI cable

The most straightforward way to connect an iOS device to a TV is using a wired connection. While cheaper third-party adapters are available, be aware that these will not support streaming video apps that use copy protection, (You’ll also need to supply your own cable, so consider getting an HDMI cable that’s at least 15 feet long if you want to sit a comfortable distance from the TV.)

Setup is easy: Just plug the HDMI cable into your TV on one end and the adapter on the other, plug the Lightning cable into your iOS device, and set the TV to the appropriate input. You can also plug a charger into the adapter’s second Lightning port to keep your iOS device’s battery from draining.

iPhone to Apple TV via AirPlay

If you’d rather not deal with wires, you can also stream video and audio to any Apple using the wireless AirPlay protocol. This allows you to either mirror your iPhone or iPad display on the TV, or beam video and audio from within supported apps.

Here’s how to mirror what’s on your iPhone or iPad display:

1.Ensure that both the Apple TV and iOS device are on the same Wi-Fi network.

2.If you have an iPhone X or newer or an iPad running iOS 12 or later, swipe down from the upper-right corner to reveal the Control Center. Otherwise, swipe up for Control Center instead.

3.Tap the “Screen Mirroring” button.

4.Select your Apple TV from the list. (If you have multiple Apple TVs, consider labeling each one based on the room it’s in.)

5.On your iOS device, enter the four-digit code that appears on your TV screen. (By default, you’ll only need to do this once for each device.)

6.To disconnect from the TV, follow steps 1 through 3, and then select “Stop Mirroring” from the list.