CastPlay - Cast Screen

Review by eFreeware

If you have an Android phone and a television that speaks Google Cast or DLNA, CastPlay is the sort of app you reach for when something on the small screen deserves the big one. It is free, it carries ads, and it does not ask for a purchase to work. That combination is what makes it worth a look before you commit to anything paid.

The developer, Masivapp, positions it as a way to move screen content from a phone to a TV, and the appeal is broad: photos, video, music, games, whatever is on your display. It has over 100,000 installs and a 3.7 average from 3,066 ratings, which suggests a tool people try and keep around rather than one that fades after a single evening.

What CastPlay does with your screen

At its core, CastPlay mirrors what is on an Android phone onto a television. The developer describes it as an Android take on the Google Cast protocol, which is the mechanism behind the casting button you already see in many apps.

That matters for the kind of content that has no cast button of its own. A photo gallery, a game, a downloaded file, a browser tab: anything visible on the phone can, in principle, be sent to the TV. Web videos, music, movies, games and photos are the sort of material it handles, which covers most of what people actually want on a larger display.

The second protocol is DLNA, an older standard that many smart TVs and media boxes still support. Having both means the app can talk to a wider spread of hardware than a Google Cast-only tool would. If your TV predates the casting era but handles DLNA, that is where CastPlay earns its keep.

The TV side of the equation

CastPlay is not only a phone app. The developer notes that it can be installed on Android TVs, where it acts as a receiver for compatible Android smartphones.

That is a useful arrangement for households where the television runs Android TV but the casting ecosystem is inconsistent. It streams from various compatible Android phones, so the sending device still needs to be running Android software that the app can work with.

I would treat the TV installation as the more interesting half of the product. Screen mirroring from a phone is a common enough trick; turning an Android TV into a receiver for phones in the house is the part that solves a specific problem.

What it needs, and what comes with it

The requirements are straightforward and worth stating plainly. You need an Android phone as the source, and a television that supports Google Cast or DLNA, or an Android TV where CastPlay itself can be installed. The developer describes the sending phones as compatible Android devices, so the app is not promising to work with anything that runs a different operating system.

The app is free to download and supported by advertising. For a utility like this, that is a fair trade, though ads in a screen-mirroring tool are the sort of thing you notice when you are trying to get a video onto the TV in a hurry.

The rating sits at 3.7 from several thousand reviews, which is decent without being glowing. I read that as a sign the app does its job for many people while leaving room for frustration. It was released in September 2024 and last updated in August 2026, so it has had time to settle.

A fit for mixed hardware households

If your TV handles DLNA but not Google Cast, or the other way around, an app that speaks both is more useful than one that speaks only one. It also suits anyone with an Android TV who wants a simple receiver for phones in the house.

It is a reasonable choice for someone who wants to put photos, a game or a video on the big screen without buying extra hardware.

For anyone whose television already handles casting natively and whose phone apps all have their own cast buttons, the app adds little. Its value comes from covering the gaps between devices, and that is a narrower need than the install numbers might suggest.

Verdict: a free bridge for TVs that need one

CastPlay is a sensible install if your television and your phone do not agree on how to talk to each other. It handles screen mirroring over Google Cast, adds DLNA for older hardware, and can sit on an Android TV as a receiver. The price is right, the purchase model is simple, and the ads are the cost of admission.

I would point it at households with mixed hardware, particularly Android TV owners who want phones to reach the television without extra equipment. If your setup already casts smoothly, there is little here you do not have. For everyone else, it is a free tool that covers a real gap.