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Pair your YouTube app with an Xbox 360

Learn how to set up YouTube's "Send to TV" feature to send videos from your iPhone or Android phone to your Xbox 360, or any number of compatible devices.

Donald Bell Senior Editor / How To
Donald Bell has spent more than five years as a CNET senior editor, reviewing everything from MP3 players to the first three generations of the Apple iPad. He currently devotes his time to producing How To content for CNET, as well as weekly episodes of CNET's Top 5 video series.
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Donald Bell
2 min read

Watch this: Send YouTube videos to Xbox from iPhone

Want to toss YouTube videos from your phone to your TV? You got it. It's called "Send to TV," and it's a feature of Google's YouTube app that Android users have had for some time.

But now that Google has rolled the feature out to Apple's iOS devotees, and expanded support for more streaming devices, the feature is seeing a second wind.

But how do you do make it all work? Well, I gave it a shot with an iPhone 5 and the YouTube App for Xbox, but it could just as well have been an Android phone or tablet, and a PS3, or a Wii, or even just an Internet-connected smart TV that includes an up-to-date YouTube app. Check here for Google's full list of compatible devices.

The first step is to get the YouTube app going on whatever device you've got connected to your TV. In my case, it's the Xbox 360. Next, dive into the app's YouTube settings. You should see an option for pairing devices. Click it, and it will generate a nine-digit number.

YouTube for Xbox.
The Pair Devices menu on the Xbox 360's YouTube app. Donald Bell/CNET

Next, open up the YouTube app on the iPhone, go into Settings, and select Pair YouTube TV. Enter that nine-digit number generated by the Xbox, give your TV a name, and hit Add.

Once paired, a little TV button will appear at the top of any video you watch on the mobile app. Tap it, and you can select your TV from the list and the video will start right up on the big screen. In this mode, you can still use the mobile app to pause and adjust playback or even jump the video back to your phone by tapping that TV button again and selecting your phone from the list.

And as I said, the same trick works with Android, or really any mobile device that can access YouTube.com/pair. It's a useful trick, and unlike Apple's AirPlay video streaming, you don't have to be on the same home network to pull this off.

Enjoy.