By means of third-party utilities, Android has featured the ability to stream to AirPlay devices like the Apple TV for some time now, but no Android device has ever shipped with native AirPlay support in tow. That all changes with the launch of the HTC 10, the first device to ship with officially licensed support for Apple’s popular AirPlay protocol.
Some may wonder why this matters? The fact is, native implementation, generally speaking, is more reliable than third-party workarounds, and the presence of native AirPlay support is no different.
With as many Apple TVs and AirPlay speaker devices as there are in the wild, HTC has made the choice to officially license the use of the AirPlay protocol from Apple. That means that AirPlay support in the HTC 10 is fully baked into the device, and is not a workaround and doesn’t rely on a third-party utility.
AirPlaying audio will be easy to pull off thanks to the three finger swipe-up gesture available from anywhere on the interface. Performing such a gesture will cause HTC Connect to appear, which allows users to seamlessly stream to a variety of devices across several protocols. This, of course, includes AirPlay.
The only downside to HTC’s native AirPlay streaming support is that it only does audio. That means that you won’t be able to stream videos to your Apple TV natively, but you will be able to stream audio to AirPlay speakers, and to the Apple TV as well.
Be sure to check out our hands-on look at the HTC 10 for more details on HTC’s just-launched flagship smartphone for 2016.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments