According to reliable sources, Roku OS will soon start to support Airplay, the majestic feature from Apple that allows wireless display of Apple device screen on smart TVs. This is great news for iPhone and Mac owners as they will be able to stream photos, videos, and audio streams from their devices on to their televisions. Roku support to Airplay is significant as Apple is notorious for not sharing its proprietary technologies with third parties.
Stream content from your Apple devices on your smart TV
Airplay was until now supported only by Apple devices. This meant that consumers could only stream their photos and videos from their iPhones on to the screen of their Mac laptops or Apple TVs. Of late, Apple is being seen as opening up to the idea of sharing its technology with third parties. It first allowed smart speakers to support Airplay, and now Roku tech support to Airplay 2 confirms a shift in the policies of the company.
Interestingly, it was Samsung, arch rival of Apple, which announced support for Airplay 2 in its smart TV range in 2019. However, it seems certain that Roku will beat the Korean electronics giant in this tactic. Roku support will bring many benefits to the consumers. In fact, a Roku stick can be inse rted in the HDMI port of any smart TV, and Samsung is just one of them.
This feature might be restricted to high end Roku devices
However, Roku has still not made it clear which of its devices will be supporting Airplay 2. If it is saying that this support will come through an update of its OS, then it should bring compatibility to Airplay 2 to all its devices. However, there is still a strong possibility that support to Airplay 2 might only be provided in the top end Roku devices. They can always try to sell this feature at a higher price or cite some weird technical issues behind their inability to provide support on all their existing devices.
Roku sticks are available in many price ranges. While the cheap one is priced at $40, there is also a premium Roku stick priced at $99.
There are rumors that Roku support to Airplay might be restricted to smart TVs having preinstalled Roku OS. Some of the smart TVs having this feature are TCL, Sharp, and Hisense. Only time will tell whether Roku is magnanimous enough to enable all its devices to support Airplay 2 or not.
In addition to Airplay, Roku is also adding support to Alexa, the smart speakers from Amazon. This feature will allow owners of Alexa speakers to search movies of their choice on their Roku devices. They will also be able to stream TV shows of their choice by giving command to their Alexa speakers. Imagine being able to fast forward and pause a program by simply talking to your speaker.
Roku support to Alexa has already surfaced in United States though there is no word from the company when customers in Europe will enjoy this facility.
