Your old Android phone can replace a Roku or Fire Stick—here’s the setup I use

After a recent phone upgrade, my old Moto G 2025 was hanging around, waiting for a fun experience or project to give it purpose in its newly disconnected life. Smart TVs and devices like the Nvidia Shield have their issues, but I figured, “Why not play around with Android TV for a bit and set up an ATV experience on my phone?”

Android TV is a functional operating system, already installed on many televisions and various streaming boxes.

I wanted to find a way to breathe new life into an old device and unlock the potential of the Android TV operating system. Additionally, I’ve been meaning to set up an Android TV project for a while, so I enlisted the old Moto G for the task.

Making sure the phone will work

With a brief introduction about Android TV

Android TV has been around since 2014 and is built into many smart TVs, but you can use your old phone to create a better experience. It’s also worth noting that Google TV and Android TV are not the same, as Google TV focuses more on content recommendations and a minimal user interface.

Android TV is all about apps. This is why we are doing this experiment. I was worried that the low-power Motorola wouldn’t be up to the task. But after checking the specs, I knew it would work great:

1. 4 GB + 2 GB RAM (the extra 2 come from RAM Boost)

2. 128 GB of storage

3. It runs Android 16, codenamed Baklava, which dates from 2025.

4. It is unlocked/detached from a support.

5. It has built-in streaming features that work with actual Android TVs.

For the TV, I used a Samsung smart TV about three years old and a slightly newer Android TV. I predict it will work quickly and easily on the latter, but the Samsung will be a challenge.

To make this work, I needed a launcher (because I don’t like the default home screen), a screen casting app, and of course, both of my TVs.

Setup started with ATV Launcher

A premium configuration for less than $3

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

To start, I wanted a beautiful and functional launcher with awesome features. There was only one obvious choice: ATV Launcher.

Even though I used to work in marketing (and I admit I have a weakness for silly radio commercials from the 70s to the 90s), I totally despise commercials in my everyday apps. So I shelled out $3 for an ad-free experience in the interface itself.

This may sound strange, but having grown up in the era of network television and syndication, I don’t really have a problem ignoring the commercials between shows. It’s these video ads on the interface and on YouTube that bother me the most. With this in mind, I’ve opted for the free versions of some of my TV apps.

Some of the other apps I’ve chosen are either ad-free or I already have prepaid premium access to them. My criteria were not very demanding.

Getting started with Android TV on an old phone

Taking Motorola to the Next Level

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

What we’re doing here is basically converting the old Motorola into a content “hub” and remote that can connect to any smart TV that’s compatible with the Android TV launcher.

It’s a fantastic experience because it creates something universally useful. If it works on an accessible, low-end free phone like my Moto G, it stands to reason that the process should also work on any phone running Android 16. Android 17 is currently in its fourth beta, but I imagine this process will work just fine in this version (when it’s finally released).

Anyway, I plan to try this setup with an Android 17 device when it becomes available, but for now we’re working with the current version (16 at the time of writing).

Create a personalized TV experience

Finding the right channels that make sense for this experience

Full disclosure: I’m not a big TV or movie guy. So why should I bother with an Android TV setup? Well, I watch YouTube often (it’s one of the few subscriptions I have). Soon I plan to acquire a mini-PC to integrate into my home lab for self-hosting and streaming. I also recently worked with my son to set up a new Plex server for movies.

Other than that, I installed The Gizmoplex, which is a video player for Mystery Science Theater 3000 which I have access to since I backed the 2022 Kickstarter and NHK World for topical and deadly documentaries (like the one I recently saw about Peace, the epileptic polar bear).

So we have these four and a few others I wanted to check out:

With these selections locked and my Android TV app ready to go, I placed them all in an easy-to-access folder and prepared for testing.

Finding the right casting app

One choice stood out among a glut of options

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

Since I planned this project on a shoestring budget and it relied on converting old equipment to a new use, it didn’t make sense to buy a bunch of cables.

I decided that streaming to the TV would be my best bet at the moment, with the option of getting a USB-C to HDMI adapter down the line for a wired connection.

So I turned my attention to screen mirroring apps, a process that turned out to be a bit of a nightmare to get this project working. I eventually got it working, but I was a little surprised at how difficult this part of the experience turned out to be, largely because Samsung smart TVs are finicky, to say the least.

Broadcast on my Smart TV

Test my selections using screen casting

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

Remember what I said earlier about the Samsung TV? “Challenge” wasn’t the right word. “Frustrating” is more like it.

Samsung TVs use the Tizen operating system, which is decidedly not Android. I spent about half an hour testing various mirroring apps. Many apps available on the Google Play Store are bloated, ad-filled monstrosities that appear built on faulty code.

The functionality is just bad. The situation gets worse when intrusive ads with invisible or lowercase “x”s cause you to accidentally click on them.

If I see another Temu ad…

Regardless, even with successful casting, the video was far too slow to be useful. Luckily I also have a smaller TV with Android TV as the operating system.

I got it working using two different apps: Pigeon Cast and Samsung Stream to TV. Also don’t let me watch for very long without encouraging me to buy premium. I refused. I also tried several other apps, with the same effect. They were all disappointing, full of advertising and most of them didn’t recognize my Samsung TV as a viable option.

However, setting up the phone (with ATV Launcher as the interface) was quite simple with a non-Samsung TV. Motorola phones have a built-in “cast” feature, so I just turned it on and it worked wonderfully.

Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek

The downside of casting can be a slight lag on some apps, but in my experience this hasn’t caused me many problems. There’s also the fact that you can kill the battery quickly or really destroy your entire streaming data if you’re not careful. My workaround was simple: I simply left the phone plugged in and put it on Wi-Fi. It’s worth noting, however, that I’m a minimalist viewer. I watch one episode of a show at a time and spend no more than 1.5-2 hours watching TV at a time.

This drives my wife crazy. So your experience may vary depending on viewing time, bandwidth, and device type.

An old, used phone is an inexpensive and ideal choice for an Android TV setup

Credit:

David J. Buck / How to Geek

While I was going the casting route, you can also find USB-C to HDMI adapters that let you connect your phone directly to the TV. I haven’t tried this method yet.

Wired TV can give you up to 4K resolution, but streaming will be limited, so keep that in mind when repurposing an old device for something like this.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas for starting your own Android TV project or at least helps you find a way to give old Android devices new life.