IPTV on Google TV and Chromecast — Setup for Both Devices

Work out which device you have

Google has used the Chromecast name for two incompatible ideas, and almost every support thread about IPTV on Chromecast is two people describing different hardware.

• Chromecast with Google TV (2020 onward) and the newer Google TV Streamer ship with a physical remote and their own on-screen interface. These run Android TV under the Google TV skin, have a Play Store, and install apps like any streaming box. If your device came with a remote, this is you.
• The original Chromecast dongles (1st through 3rd generation) have no remote and no interface. They are receivers: a phone, tablet or Chrome browser sends a stream to them. They cannot install anything, IPTV apps included.

The quick test is the remote. No remote in the box means you are on the casting route below, not the app route.

Chromecast with Google TV — installing an IPTV player

This is the straightforward case. The device behaves like any Android TV box, and our Android TV setup guide applies almost unchanged.

1. From the home screen, open the Apps row and search the Play Store for your player. IPTV Smarters Pro and several alternatives are listed directly.
2. Install it, then open it and choose how you want to log in.
3. If you were given an M3U playlist URL, pick the M3U or "Load playlist" option and paste the URL exactly as issued, including any token on the end.
4. If you were given a server URL, username and password, pick Xtream Codes API instead and enter all three fields. Do not paste the server URL into the M3U box — it is the single most common setup failure, and it produces an empty channel list rather than a useful error.
5. Let the channel list and EPG populate before judging anything. On a first load this can take a couple of minutes.

TiviMate is the player most people end up on for this hardware, and it has its own walkthrough in our TiviMate setup guide.

When the app is not in the Play Store

Some IPTV players are not listed on Google TV, which is what sideloading is for. The route has not changed in years:

1. Go to Settings → System → About and click Android TV OS build seven times to unlock Developer Options.
2. In Settings → Apps → Security & restrictions, allow installs from unknown sources for the app you will install from.
3. Install Downloader from the Play Store and use it to fetch the APK from the developer's own site.

One caution worth stating plainly: an APK from a random aggregator is an unreviewed binary with access to whatever you type into it, including your subscription credentials. Take it from the developer's own domain or do not take it at all.

The older Chromecast dongle — casting instead

With no remote and no app support, a 1st–3rd generation Chromecast can still show IPTV, but the phone or laptop does the work and the dongle just receives the picture. You will need a 2nd generation or later for reliable HD.

1. Set your subscription up on the phone first — our iPhone guide or the Android equivalent covers this.
2. Use a player with a built-in cast button. Not every IPTV app has one, and the ones that do vary in how well they hold a stream.
3. Tap the cast icon and pick the Chromecast.

Set expectations honestly here: casting a live stream is materially worse than running a player natively. The phone stays busy for the duration, a call or a notification can interrupt playback, and the extra hop adds latency you will notice against someone watching the same game on a set-top box. If you watch live sport regularly, a device that runs the app natively is the fix, and Chromecast with Google TV is the cheapest version of that fix.

Things that go wrong on this hardware specifically

• Storage. Chromecast with Google TV shipped with about 4GB usable, and IPTV players with large EPG caches fill it. If the app starts crashing on launch, clear its cache before reinstalling anything.
• Wi-Fi over Ethernet. The dongle form factor is Wi-Fi only unless you add an adapter. A congested 2.4GHz network is the most common cause of buffering on this device — see our buffering fixes before blaming the service.
• The remote has no number keys. Channel-number navigation habits from a cable box do not transfer; use the player's favourites list instead.

Before you pay for a year

Whichever device you have, test it on your own network before committing. A 24-hour free trial is long enough to check the things that actually break: a channel you care about at peak time, the EPG populating, and whether the picture holds during a live event rather than a rerun. Our plans and prices are the same regardless of which device you set up on.