It is fairly OK in terms of the compatibility across Apple products - as always for the ecosystem. However, the way it works is totally poor - when the apps is closed (either by user or somehow killed by iOS) the airplay connection drops. In opposite, content played by chromecast seems to sustain individually, regardless of the apps status.

Even I am using iPhone and have an Apple computer at home, a chromecast hardware is installed and more frequently used than Airplay.

Do anyone else experience similar as me?

  • HipsterCosmologist@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    If you have an appleTV (how I play music through my stereo) you can “control other devices” and play apple music for instance without it needing to run on the initiating device. Same happens for some other apps, where the receiving app can take over.

    • marvin69420@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I think op should’ve been more clear, I’m assuming he doesn’t have an Apple TV device and is using AirPlay built into a modern tv, which I am doing a home theater setup with new 8k tvs and will still opt to use an Apple TV 4K (till the 8k comes out) lossless music to the stereo and no ads when streaming my content. It’s a tv using an Apple api no apple hardware whatsoever

  • RunningLikeALizard@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Oh yeah. Completely agree.

    I left iPhone in 2014 and came back three years ago. AirPlay is really bad compared to Chromecast.

  • bdunha13@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Oh absolutely. Airplay is a miserable experience. Fast forwarding and rewinding don’t work half the time, and the connection drops randomly when I’m not even touching my phone

  • Answer-Altern@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    AirPlay is one of the better functionalities of iOS and after tinkering with the alternatives for a long time, I don’t even bother to try anything else. Apple has been forced to restrict the functionality for restrictions imposed by the media companies and others, while quiet about the “… cast “.

    As a long time user of Apple, I can say that the media licensing is tougher on Apple than the others, who seem to get a free pass even in the US. So Apple prefers to play it safe from a legal pov.

  • hieubuirtz@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Not a comparison. The equivalent to chromecast is the remote control to apple tv. Airplay is just a way to cast whatever is playing to a different screen whereas chromecast is a remote control to tell the target device to play what you want (all decoding and processing are done on the target device)

  • autokiller677@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Why do you (force) close the app though?

    I never had this problem. An app actively playing media (and properly telling this to iOS, so media controls appear) also does not get killed by iOS.

    • Independent-Bear-604@alien.topOPB
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      1 year ago

      Sometimes when I do a lot of multi-tasking, the app is killed by iOS. A possible flaw could be from the app itself, but the logic behind airplay also plays a key part.

      • autokiller677@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        It is most definitely a problem of the app. I have never seen an app actively playing media being terminated by iOS. That’s really disruptive for the user, and Apple usually protects the user experience from stuff like this. But do to this, the app has to correctly communicate to iOS that it is actively playing media.

        The upside of AirPlay is that it works with everything. Chromecast needs to be supported by the service you want to cast so the phone can hand off the connection to the Chromecast (something that AirPlay can actually also do, at least for video). But if an app / service does not support it, using the device as a streaming relay is the only way to enable casting of basically everything.

      • _mikedotcom@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        Wild that in 2023 you have to explain that you want to multitask on an iPhone and getting downvoted for it.

  • No-Pepper-1228@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    New iPhone 15 Pro user here coming from 13 years of Android. IMHO AirPlay works much better than Chromecast. More reliable, more seamless connection and faster in general.

  • justTheWayOfLife@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    it’s because chromecast devices have in-built apps like yt, spotify, etc whatever you’re streaming so it’s actually not your phone streaming but chromecast itself (or the in-built chromecast in your smarttv) that’s why you can do whatever in the background on your phone while the stream continues

    not the same for devices with airplay functionality, except appleTV.

  • Lonely-Captain-5562@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    That’s because I believe Apple Music is the only service which will play through the AirPlay device with your iPhone being simply a remote. Every other service is simply cast from your phone (plays directly on your phone) so closing the app terminates the streaming. It’s definitely inferior to Chromecast and Spotify connect in the way this works but it’s just Apple’s closed ecosystem

  • AnotherAppleUser@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Airplay for me works better than chromecast. It connects faster and more reliably to my tv and the subtitles actually work

    • Rdubya44@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      If you have a device that supports it. Which in my experience, is rare. same for apps.

      • AnotherAppleUser@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        Yea not to mention im using a ~7 year old LG smart tv to connect with airplay and it works better than the ~3 year old chromecast we have

        • bora-yarkin@alien.topB
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          1 year ago

          The only problematic thing i have had with airplay is samsung tv’s built in ones. It just keeps dropping but since i use it with apple tv 4k, it almost works like wired connection. Stablest screen mirroring experience i have ever had compared to anything.