Can Bluetooth Alone Send Video from iPhone to Apple TV?

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Level 3

744 points

Can Bluetooth Alone Send Video from iPhone to Apple TV?

Can someone else test this? It appears WiFi is not essential to send video from iPhone to Apple TV. Apple TV users can use only Bluetooth to Airplay video from iPhone to ATV4.

Note I have selected a video in Safari on my iPhone 11 in Frame 1. WiFi is off in the Control Center in Frame 2. Yet the video is playing fine on my ATV4 in Frame 4.

The Airplay Support literature seems to infer WiFi must be used for Airplay, but my phone is only on mobile data and Bluetooth. The ATV4 is on my home broadband connection.

Apple TV HD, tvOS 14

Posted on Mar 29, 2021 5:08 PM

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Answer 1

jeremy_v

Community Specialist

Mar 30, 2021 2:29 PM in response to cyberbiker

Hello cyberbiker,

Thank you for providing those details and including the screenshots. It sounds like you want to know why the AirDrop feature continues to work even though Wi-Fi was disabled in Control Center. Let’s help.

Even if Wi-Fi or Bluetooth are turned off in Control Center, both will continue to be available for features such as AirDrop. To learn more, check out the ‘About Wi-Fi and Bluetooth’ section here: Use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in Control Center

If you would like to completely disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, please do so directly in Settings under Settings > Wi-Fi and Settings > Bluetooth respectively.

We hope that helps. Take care.

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Answer 2

cyberbiker Author

Level 3

744 points

Mar 30, 2021 8:30 PM in response to jeremy_v

Jeremy, it seems from the verbiage in the left frame of the first image that Airplay uses two wireless channels: 1) one is the internet channel both the iOS device and the Apple TV need to be on to initially establish a connection and 2) a second Apple proprietary short distance wireless link to communicate the audio/video signal once the network channel is disconnected.

In the the left and center frames of the second image you can clearly see I have fully disconnected from the internet provider, yet, Airplay on my iPhone 11 is drawing the video (3 vids I played over the next 35 minutes) from cell data, then feeding it to Apple TV on a proprietary Airplay wireless link.

Is that your understanding?

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Answer 3

cyberbiker Author

Level 3

744 points

Mar 31, 2021 5:59 PM in response to vazandrew

Very informative. Jeremy and Vazandrew.

Airplay requires the two devices to be on the same network and the Settings>WiFi toggle to be On, but does not require a cell data or broadband connection to the internet unless streaming from an internet source.

There is no direct wireless link between the iOS device and Apple TV. Bluetooth does not need to be ON to use Airplay. Airplay strictly uses the router network.

Thanks for helping clarify all this.

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Answer 4

vazandrew

Level 8

40,468 points

Mar 31, 2021 10:14 AM in response to cyberbiker

Airplay is a wifi protocol it cannot work over bluetooth alone. When using peer to peer it uses BT for discovery and then creates an ad-hoc network over wifi. If you just use control centre then the wifi isn't turned off entirely, if you go into settings and toggle it off then you will notice a line through that icon and then will also see that airplay is disabled.

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Can Bluetooth Alone Send Video from iPhone to Apple TV?

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