4 Ways to Add a Photo Gallery to Your TV — Even if It Doesn’t Come With One

A streaming stick from Amazon Fire TV, Google’s Chromecast or Roku sells for as little as $20. Many support photo galleries, either built in or through downloadable third-party apps that treat your slideshow as a personalized screensaver.

Some apps work better with specific TVs. Amazon Fire TV works best with Amazon Photos while Chromecast works best with Google Photos, which you can customize via its app. Meanwhile, Flickr is often bundled with Samsung smart TVs.

With a Chromecast stick:

1. Open the Google Home app on your mobile device and tap Chromecast.

2. Now select Personalize Ambient | Google Photos | Recent highlights.

3. From here, select Family & friends and tap the people you want to include in your slideshow. Hit Confirm.

4. Cast from your phone

While you’ll have to do a little more work, you can wirelessly cast photos and home movies from your phone to your television when you’re not watching TV. As long as you’re on the same wireless network as your smart TV, you can launch your phone’s photo gallery, select a bunch of photos, videos or both and transmit them to your big screen.

From YouTube:

1. Open the YouTube app on your mobile device or computer and find the video you want to watch.

2. Tap the video to play it. You don’t need to expand it to full screen on your device.

3. Click on the small icon that resembles a TV screen with a Wi-Fi logo in the top right corner of your screen to see a list of TV options.

4. Select the TV where you want the video to be played. Your phone or tablet may display Searching for devices, so once it finds a compatible TV, select it. Your video should begin playing.

If you have an Apple TV, you can show photos on your television in two ways. One option: Wirelessly cast photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad via AirPlay2.

1. In photos, tap a photo, then tap the Share icon.   

2. Swipe up, tap, then choose your Apple TV or an AirPlay 2-enabled smart TV as the playback destination. If an AirPlay passcode appears on the TV screen, enter the passcode on your iPhone or iPad. 

A second way is to launch the Photos app on the Apple TV box, which can display your iCloud Shared Photo Library:

1. On your Apple TV, open the Settings app. Choose Users and Accounts, then select your account.

2. Choose iCloud, then turn on iCloud Photos.

3. To view photos and videos stored in iCloud Photos, open the Photos app, then navigate to the Photos category in the menu bar. All the photos and videos you see are stored in iCloud Photos.

You can also choose to play your photos as a screensaver:

1. Open Settings on Apple TV.

2. Go to Users and Accounts | [user name] | Photos, then turn on both iCloud Photos and Show Memories.

Some TVs have built-in galleries

Several of today’s televisions automatically convert to photo gallery screensavers when the unit is turned off. But you can easily disable this function.

In low power-consumption mode, TVs like Samsung’s the Frame will display professional artwork included with the purchase of the television or that you can purchase separately at the Samsung Art Store.

Similarly, LG’s Gallery mode, which is part of its webOS operating system, lets you view photos and other data stored in the LG Gallery. 

Most Hisense, TCL and Vizio smart TVs have screensavers or gallery options that let you add your own photos. You can usually find this in Settings, or in the Picture Settings section if you don’t see a dedicated screen saver or gallery menu option.

With LG’s Gallery mode:

1. Press the Home button on the TV remote and select Gallery.  

2. Select the theme you want and press OK.  

3. Use the direction buttons to change the sequencing speed, theme and sound.  

If you own another TV brand, check the manual or play around in the Settings or Options area to see if a gallery mode is available to enable.

To make the visual experience more authentic, you can purchase magnetic pieces that resemble a picture frame to affix to the sides of your TV.