Vizio SmartCast TVs to Gain Support for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit Later This Year

by

Vizio today announced that its recent smart TVs will gain support for Apple's wireless streaming protocol AirPlay 2 and smart home platform HomeKit via a free SmartCast 3.0 over-the-air software update later this year.

vizio smartcast tvs airplay 2 homekit
AirPlay 2 support will allow users to stream videos, music, photos, and more directly from an iPhone, iPad, and Mac to SmartCast-enabled Vizio TVs, complete with lock screen controls. HomeKit support will enable users to easily control the TV using the Home app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac or Siri voice commands.

Vizio says the SmartCast 3.0 update with AirPlay 2 and HomeKit can be tested by registered beta members in the United States and Canada in the first quarter of 2019. The software will be publicly released in the second quarter of 2019 and will also be preinstalled on Vizio's entire 2019 lineup of smart TVs.

The upcoming SmartCast 3.0 update will also add expanded Google Assistant actions for eligible SmartCast TVs. Google Assistant users, for example, will have the ability to use simple voice commands to launch apps, select inputs as well as pause, resume, stop, fast-forward, rewind content, and more.

Amazon Alexa users can also control their TV, and coming later this year, launch apps without lifting a finger, according to Vizio.

Apple recently updated its website with information about how AirPlay 2 and HomeKit will be implemented on smart TVs from "leading TV manufacturers," including Samsung, which is also introducing an iTunes movies and TV shows app that does not appear will be available on Vizio smart TVs at this time.

Tags: AirPlay, CES 2019, HomeKit Guide, Vizio

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Read Full Article • 28 comments
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
Read Full Article • 108 comments
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
Read Full Article • 152 comments
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
Read Full Article • 129 comments
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
Read Full Article • 176 comments
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
Read Full Article • 95 comments
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...
Read Full Article • 136 comments
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
Read Full Article • 158 comments

Top Rated Comments

joshwenke Avatar
joshwenke
78 months ago
This is the start of Apple completely changing its business model...
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mattopotamus Avatar
mattopotamus
78 months ago
Oh, man, the Apple TV is going to be so sad when it finds out… :(
I do not know why people keep saying this? It is not like the average consumer updates their TV on a regular basis. The ATV is still way cheaper than buying a new set.
[doublepost=1546872397][/doublepost]
This is the start of Apple completely changing its business model...
Agreed. It is a very smart move on their part. People are not upgrading hardware like they did 2 years ago.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bbednarz Avatar
bbednarz
78 months ago
Apple has always been a tight eco system but unfortunately they are branching out cos they are losing sales this is sad for apple
There is nothing unfortunate or sad about this. The more products that support AirPlay 2 and HomeKit the better.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ipedro Avatar
ipedro
78 months ago
Vizio, Samsung and LG. These TVs represent the vast majority of them in homes today. If AirPlay 2 is on all of them, retroactively by at least a year, suddenly AirPlay becomes ubiquitous. Waiting for the LG announcement now.

Looking at this from a more three dimensional perspective, it opens up a huge opportunity for Apple’s screenless or small screen devices like HomePod and Apple Watch.

If a HomePod can count on having an AirPlay enabled TV nearby, it suddenly becomes a full voice controlled home computer. Remember the A8 chip inside the HomePod? That’s a very powerful chip for something just intent on being a speaker, even a smart one. “Hey Siri, show me my appointments for this week”, HomePod looks for the nearest TV “Would you like me to display it on the Living Room TV”?

Apple Watch itself has the potential to displace iPhone as our main personal computer. As it increases in power and as Siri gets better at recognizing your speech and what you mean using machine learning, it can be a voice first personal assistant on your wrist that can do almost anything that an iPhone can do. Only almost because there are things that require a large sceen to do effectively, such as watching videos or displaying pictures. What if you could count on there always being an AirPlay enabled screen nearby? Well, Apple is making that exact move today.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
truthertech Avatar
truthertech
78 months ago
More evidence that Apple is slowly transitioning into a services company. It'll be a slow, possibly bumpy transition, but this is going to be interesting to watch. It's becoming increasingly apparent that they cannot solely depend on hardware dominance moving forward.
"Slow, bumpy transition?" Like most people, because the tech press hasn't talked about much, I think you may be unawares and a few years behind what has been happening. It actually has been an incredibly smooth and amazing trajectory already into becoming one of the leading Services producers among all tech companies.

Recognizing that the iPhone market would eventually slow down, Apple began a major move into services a few years back. When Services was already in the billions in terms of revenue, (and it has been for over two years the fastest growing part of its business,) Apple announced a goal of turning Services into a major component. Apple has been so quietly successful in that goal in the Services arena that folks don't realize that Apple's Service revenue now dwarfs ALL of Facebook's revenue!

Apple's Service revenue now hits a record quarter after quarter and is now over 10 BILLION dollars a quarter, well on pace to smash Cook's goal of $50 BILLION dollars a year in Services revenue by 2020. Indeed, Apple Services, by itself, is now one of the largest tech companies in the world!

While Apple is far beyond the slowly transitioning into Services, it would also be a mistake to assume that Apple is "becoming a services company." Apple will continue to grow it's hardware business and with the tens of billions of dollars Apple is investing into R and D, hardware has a huge upside to be a major driver, if not the major driver, of revenue going forward.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bbednarz Avatar
bbednarz
78 months ago
HomeKit and AirPlay 2 looks to be rolling out to a lot of things this year. Very good to see. Especially HomeKit.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments