Documentation / Guides

Android TV

The Android app has a mode for Android TV. On a TV it is a place where files and texts from your phone arrive and are shown on the big screen. It only receives: nothing is sent from the TV. This page explains how to install it, how a phone is paired with it, how to answer an incoming file with the remote, and what the TV app does not do.

Install #

The TV app is the same app as on a phone (me.easysync.mobile), and it comes through Google Play on the TV. Open Google Play on the TV, search for easysync and install it. The app needs Android 10 or newer. If the web component of the TV is too old or missing, the app says so and asks you to update it in the app store of the TV; there is nothing to update inside easysync.

There is no other way to install it that this site describes.

Pair a phone with the TV #

Only a phone pairs with a TV. A TV has no camera and no keyboard, so it always shows the code, and the phone scans it. A computer or the web app cannot be paired with a TV.

  1. Start easysync on the TV and press Pair a phone. The TV shows a QR code and a clock: the code is valid for three minutes and works once. The TV shows no link as text.
  2. On the phone, open easysync, choose Pair device and scan the code from across the room. The camera of the phone, or the scanner of easysync, both work.
  3. Both devices now show six digits. Compare them. They must be the same on the TV and on the phone. Then confirm on both devices. If they differ, choose Digits do not match: someone else may have scanned the code. Read Pairing in detail for why this step matters.
  4. After the digits match, the TV shows a card with two boxes, which you set with the remote: "My own device" (files from this phone are accepted without asking) and "Show texts from this device". Both are off at first. With both off, the TV asks before each file and drops texts. You can change them later in Devices on the TV. The phone shows its own card for the new device; for a TV, the box for accepting files from it is off, because a TV is often shared.

Anyone in the room can see the code while it is on the screen, and can see the digits. The six digits are what protects the pairing, so compare them yourself and do not confirm if they differ.

Use the remote #

The app works with the arrow keys, OK and Back of the remote. There is no touch, no pointer and no on-screen keyboard.

  • Focus. The focused button has a visible frame. The arrow keys move it, OK presses it.
  • Careful starting points. Where a wrong press would cost something, focus starts on the safe choice: on Digits do not match when you compare the digits, and on Reject in the dialog for an incoming file. Move to the other button on purpose. A key that is held down is ignored on these buttons, so holding OK cannot confirm by accident.
  • Back closes the topmost thing: a dialog, a message or a detail view. On the first screen it leaves easysync and returns to the home screen of the TV. Back never confirms a pairing and never accepts a file.

Receive files #

By default the TV asks before it takes a file. When a paired phone sends one, a dialog opens on the TV while the app is in the foreground:

  • Accept starts the transfer. Reject refuses it. Back closes the dialog and leaves the offer waiting. Accept only files you expect.
  • If the file would not fit in the free space of the TV, the dialog says so and offers no Accept. Delete a received file or free space, then send the file again from the phone.
  • If easysync is in the background, a notification may show instead, if notifications are allowed on the TV. Opening it brings back the offer.
  • An offer that nobody answers waits on the TV, and the phone shows it as waiting.

A received file is kept inside easysync, not in a folder of the TV, and it is removed seven days after it arrived. The list of received files shows when. In the list, every file has two buttons:

  • Open hands the file to another app on the TV through the system, for example a photo viewer or a video player. easysync has no viewer of its own. If no app on the TV can open that type of file, the TV says so and you can still delete it.
  • Delete removes the file from the TV after you confirm. The original stays on the phone.

Nothing opens by itself when a file arrives.

Receive texts #

A text or a link from the phone does not go to the clipboard of the TV: the TV never writes its clipboard. Texts appear on the Texts screen, large, only if "Show texts from this device" is on for that phone (a box on the TV, set when you pair and later in Devices); otherwise they are dropped. Each text is hidden at first: press Show to read it, Hide to hide it again. The list is kept in memory only and is gone when easysync closes.

easysync does not open links on a TV. A link is shown as text; type it into a browser on another device.

Limits #

  • If you turn on "My own device" for a phone on the TV, the TV accepts files from it without asking, up to 1 GiB per file and up to 2 GiB of unfinished transfers at a time. A larger file is refused. With the box off, the TV asks for each file.
  • easysync keeps some free space on the TV for the TV itself. On a TV with little storage, large files may not fit; the dialog shows the free space.
  • Received files are removed seven days after they arrived.
  • The app works while it runs. After a restart of the TV, or when the TV stops the app in standby, easysync must be opened again before the phone can reach it. It does not start by itself at boot.

What the TV app does not do #

  • It does not send. There is no way to send a file or a text from the TV.
  • No pairing from a computer or the web app. Only a phone pairs with a TV.
  • No clipboard screen. The TV has no clipboard tab and no clipboard settings, and it never reads or writes its clipboard.
  • No app lock. Anyone who holds the remote can open easysync, see the list of received files and open any of them. That is why the TV asks by default. Keep the box "My own device" off on a TV that others use, and delete files you do not want others to see.
  • No built-in viewer and no browser. Files open through other apps of the TV; links are not opened.

Privacy #

What the app and the official relay handle is in the privacy policy. The TV app is the same app, so the same policy applies. What a relay can see is on What the relay sees.