YouTube has announced a new feature that allows the YouTube app on your phone to sync up with what you’re watching on your TV’s YouTube app, via TechCrunch. If while watching YouTube on a device like a Fire TV, you can then open the YouTube app on your phone and you’ll see a prompt to connect the mobile app to the TV app. This “reverse-casting” will then allow you to view comments and other YouTube aspects for the YouTube video being played on your TV.
YouTube’s TV app provides a lot of the same features as its mobile or desktop experience, but, due to the difficulties of only having a remote control for interaction, many aspects of YouTube, like video descriptions, comments, and creator support options, are entirely missing from the YouTube app for TV devices. This new syncing feature for the YouTube mobile app makes it easier to get to those missing features for the video being played on your TV.
While using the YouTube app on your TV, you’ll soon be able to open the YouTube app on your phone and see a prompt to “Connect” the mobile app to the YouTube app on your TV. This is different from the casting feature that lets you control the content on your TV from your phone. This new reverse connection is not for controlling the TV, but for seeing more information and features on your phone for what you’ve selected to watch on your TV.
For this new feature to work, you just need to be logged into your TV’s YouTube app and your phone’s YouTube app with the same YouTube account. It doesn’t work through local network protocols, like Google Cast or DIAL, but rather, it just syncs what is being watched on the TV with what is shown on the phone app via YouTube’s cloud features, like your watch history. YouTube says the feature will be rolling out to all platforms over the next few weeks. It’s not yet available via the YouTube app on the Fire TV’s I tested it with, using both an iPhone and an Android phone, but it should make its way to Fire TVs eventually.
Utterly stupid can’t put the comments in my app on the television I have to use two devices why don’t I just view it on my damn phone what a waste