I love AirPlay. If you have an iOS device and an Apple TV you probably use AirPlay. You can mirror your device on your television, or you can stream content from your device to your TV. When AirPlay first launched it seemed like a dream. All of a sudden I could get the content from my iPhone on my TV. Apple was so far ahead of the game, but it wasn't long before other companies caught up and passed them. Apple needs to fix a couple of AirPlay user experience issues to catch up.
One situation where Apple is lacking is when a video is contained within a non-AirPlay app. Take Twitter for example. Many times tweets include a link to a video. When you click the link, the video stays contained within the Twitter app and therefore no AirPlay button is presented. I pull up Control Center and hit the "AirPlay" button, but it does not work. The work around is to open the video in Safari or YouTube, but Apple should give us a way to AirPlay any video no matter what app it is in.
Another instance where AirPlay is behind the curve is the lack of HDMI-CEC support. HDMI-CEC is a feature that allows your TV to auto-source to the device receiving video. Let's say you are watching TV and you want to stream something from your iPhone to your TV. You have to pick up the TV remote and source over to the Apple TV, then turn on AirPlay on your phone. Google's Chromecast has a much better experience because it supports HDMI-CEC. In the same scenario, all you do is tell your phone to cast to the Chromecast and your TV automatically sources to the Chromecast for you. It is incredibly disappointing and surprising that Apple is so far behind the curve on this feature. Perhaps the next Apple TV will support HDMI-CEC.
I still love AirPlay, but I find myself using my Chromecast more than my Apple TV because of these issues. C'mon Apple. Give us what we want!
One situation where Apple is lacking is when a video is contained within a non-AirPlay app. Take Twitter for example. Many times tweets include a link to a video. When you click the link, the video stays contained within the Twitter app and therefore no AirPlay button is presented. I pull up Control Center and hit the "AirPlay" button, but it does not work. The work around is to open the video in Safari or YouTube, but Apple should give us a way to AirPlay any video no matter what app it is in.
Another instance where AirPlay is behind the curve is the lack of HDMI-CEC support. HDMI-CEC is a feature that allows your TV to auto-source to the device receiving video. Let's say you are watching TV and you want to stream something from your iPhone to your TV. You have to pick up the TV remote and source over to the Apple TV, then turn on AirPlay on your phone. Google's Chromecast has a much better experience because it supports HDMI-CEC. In the same scenario, all you do is tell your phone to cast to the Chromecast and your TV automatically sources to the Chromecast for you. It is incredibly disappointing and surprising that Apple is so far behind the curve on this feature. Perhaps the next Apple TV will support HDMI-CEC.
I still love AirPlay, but I find myself using my Chromecast more than my Apple TV because of these issues. C'mon Apple. Give us what we want!