Best Chromecast apps to send photos, music, and videos from Android devices to TV

Other than streaming content from various movie apps and music apps, Google’s Chromecast device’s primary function is to play local content from android phones or tablets directly on your TV. Chromecast is a multimedia player hardware that allows you to send content from your PC, tablet or mobile phone to a TV with HDMI input. There are some great android TV boxes with built-in Chromecast capability, and the newest Google Chromecast with TV takes it one step further. So why not take advantage of the little piece of hardware with some great apps for Chromecast.

What are the best Casting apps / Chromecast apps for android?

With open to the public SDK, developers bring many Chromecast compatible apps that make it more functional and productive. Let’s check out the best Chromecast apps for Android.

Google Home

Google Home is the mother app to manage and configure your Chromecast devices and other smart home devices. You can add multiple Chromecast devices in different rooms around the house and control them from one app. Google Home also acts as an excellent screen mirroring app to cast your phone’s or tablet’s display to the TV. You can cast the audio output from your phone to the TV’s speaker.

AllCast

AllCast is one of the first local cast apps, bringing streaming to another level, allowing streaming media from your mobile devices to the TV, and playing local content of your device (videos, pictures, and music) to Chromecast. It is one of the most popular chrome cast apps to play everything you have on your Android device. The good thing is that it also connects to other systems such as Amazon Fire Tv, Roku, Apple TV, Xbox, Smart TVs, or other DLNA devices with the same functionality. Allcast is simple to use with an intuitive interface. The free version of the AllCast Android app has ads during video playback and starts screens with advertising. To eliminate these drawbacks, you have to pay $4.99.

BubbleUPnP

BubbleUPnP is another popular cast video player for android. BubbleUPnP (Chromecast/DLNA) allows you to control devices that use communication protocols UPnP / DLNA access and stored in other devices that are connected to your home network storage. You can stream all your local content (music, videos, and photos) to various devices in your house. Furthermore, the app supports cloud storage services so that you can stream or cast files directly from the cloud. If the format is not one of the supported Chromecast defaults, you can take advantage of smart transcoding (audio in videos in particular), subtitles, and more by installing BubbleUPnP Server.

LocalCast

Local Cast is much more versatile than AllCast and allows you to share the content (movies, videos, pictures, and been view PDF books or files) not only from any Android device but also from any DLNA device. You can send content from your PC, from Google Drive, Dropbox, or phone to Chromecast. Another advantage is adding external subtitles to movies or shows.

Google Photos

Google Photos is probably the best solution to backup your photos to the cloud. It uses your Google Drive storage to keep all the photos and videos in high-resolution files. But where it shines is the app has Chromecast support. You can organize Photos in Albums by dates, places, scenes, occasions, and more, then use them as your background on the TV screen when Chromecast is idle. This turns your TV into a gorgeous photo frame.

Plex

Plex is one of the best Chromecast apps available. It works in combination with the Plex server you need to set up on your PC or a dedicated mini PC. You can even use a cheap Raspberry pi to install the plex server. Once you have a server, you can store all your digital content. Besides, plex has tons of Free Movies, Shows, Live TV as well. Plex will automatically organize all your movies and music files with proper metadata. You can then streams video content from your computer/ plex server to almost any other device. You can use the plex app on android to play music and video and cast directly to the Chromecast. Plex is a powerful entertainment app for managing your digital library, but you have to buy a plex pass subscription for full potential.

Tubio

Tubio is a very useful cast video player that allows casting web videos to Chromecast, Android TV, and Apple TV using airplay. The app lets you browse videos on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitch, and music from Soundcloud, Mixcloud, etc then play them directly to the TV. You can also use the Tubio as a TV remote app to control the playback – play, pause, stop or seek and adjust volume right from the phone.

Netflix, Hulu and other Movie apps

Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Crackle are some of the most popular on-demand movie services. The newer Google Chromecast with TV or other Chromecast-enabled TV box lets you install them directly on the device. However, for older Chromecast devices, the mobile app works pretty well to play your choice of movies and shows on the big screen. Also, check out our favorite movie apps to download and watch free movies.

Spotify, Pandora and other Music apps

Spotify’s mobile plays nicely with Chromecast to stream your music to the HiFi system or the nice soundbar you have with the TV. You can easily switch between if there us multiple Chromecast devices in the house. Pandora, YouTube Music, and other most popular music streaming apps work similarly.

SLING and other Live TV apps

Live TV apps such as Sling TV, YouTube TV, DirecTV are getting popular day by day. These apps allow you to watch your favorite TV shows, stream Live Football matches, and stay tuned to the latest news. Like other top entertainment apps, most of these apps let you cast content directly to the TV. So don’t forget to check our favorite TV apps for android you can use with Chromecast.

With the help of any of these apps mentioned above, you can cast local media files such as photos, videos, and music from an Android device to any tv connected with a chrome cast device. Enjoy!