You have a smart TV and you want to watch porn on the big screen. Simple enough, except when you open the TV’s app store and there is no porn app to install. That, however, should not be surprising, as Samsung, LG, Google TV, Fire TV and Roku all ban adult apps from their official stores, so getting porn onto a smart TV always comes down to one of a few workarounds rather than a download.
This guide is the only map you’ll need to choose the best method for your tech. It explains the four methods that actually work, shows you which one fits your specific TV brand, and points you to our full step-by-step guide for each route. If you already know your device, jump straight to it: Chromecast, Google TV and Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV or AirPlay from an iPhone.
Watching porn on a smart TV at a glance
No,not in the official app store, on any major platform. Samsung’s Tizen store, LG’s webOS store, the Google TV Play Store, Amazon’s Fire TV Appstore and the Roku Channel Store all prohibit pornographic apps, so you will never find a ‘Pornhub’ or ‘xHamster’ app to download the way you would Netflix. Anyone selling you a paid ‘smart TV porn app’ from an official store is selling you something that does not exist.
That sounds like bad news, but it is not. The web has everything the apps would, and every platform gives you at least one way to reach it. There are four, and which ones are open to you depends entirely on your TV brand.
The one thing to understand: every method below is a way around the app-store ban, not an app you install from the store. Once that clicks, the rest is easy. You are simply choosing between a browser, a cast, a sideload or a stick.
Every route to porn on a smart TV is one of these four. Skim them, then check the brand table below to see which apply to your set.
If your TV has a built-in web browser — Samsung and LG both do — you can go straight to any adult site and play video with no extra hardware or phone involved. It is the most self-contained method: no casting, no second device, nothing to install. The trade-off is that TV browsers are slow to type on and the on-screen keyboard is a chore, so it suits sites you visit often more than casual browsing. More on which brands have a usable browser below.
This is the easiest method for most people, and it works with almost every TV made in the last few years. You find the video on your phone and send it to the TV: Google Cast from an Android phone, or AirPlay from an iPhone or iPad. Your phone does the browsing and the TV does the playing. For the full walkthrough and which sites cast cleanly, see our guides to casting porn with Chromecast (Android) and AirPlaying porn (Apple).
Two platforms — Google TV / Android TV and Amazon Fire TV — are built on Android underneath, which means you can install adult apps directly onto the TV from outside the official store (‘sideloading’). This gives you a proper on-TV app experience without a phone in the loop. It is the most involved method and only these two platforms support it. Full instructions are in our guides to porn on Google TV and Android TV and porn on Amazon Fire TV.
If your TV is older, locked down or has no browser (Roku TVs and some budget sets), the cheapest fix is to plug a streaming stick into a spare HDMI port. A Google TV or Fire TV stick adds both casting and sideloading; an Apple TV adds flawless AirPlay. For $30 to $50 you turn any ‘dumb’ or restrictive TV into one that handles porn easily, and you get a better interface than most built-in smart-TV software anyway.
Smart TV is an umbrella term for several different operating systems, and the method that works depends on which one your set runs. Here is the quick lookup:
Once you know your method, follow the full guide for your device:
The browser method only works if your TV has one, and not all do. Here is where the big platforms stand:
If you have a Samsung or LG, the browser is genuinely the simplest option: open it, go to your site, done. On Roku and Vizio, skip the browser idea entirely and cast from your phone instead.
Whichever method you use, the sites are the same ones you already know. The free tube sites — Pornhub, xHamster and xVideos — all use standard HTML5 video, so they play in a TV browser and cast cleanly. For an ad-free, higher-production experience, a subscription service like Adult Time streams beautifully to a big screen and is also available natively on Roku.
We break down exactly which sites cast without a fight — and which throw a black screen — in our guide to the best sites for casting to a TV. If live content is what you are after, our best cam sites roundup covers the platforms that stream live to the big screen.
No. Samsung, LG, Google TV, Fire TV and Roku all ban pornographic apps from their official app stores, so there is no porn app to download the way you would Netflix. Instead you use the TV’s web browser, cast or AirPlay from your phone, sideload an app (Android TV and Fire TV only), or add a streaming stick.
Three ways. If your TV has a browser (Samsung and LG do), just visit the site directly. Otherwise, cast or AirPlay the video from your phone, or plug in a cheap streaming stick. Casting from a phone is the easiest and works with almost any recent TV.
Both Samsung (Tizen) and LG (webOS) have a full web browser built in, so the simplest method is to open the browser and go straight to an adult site — standard tube sites play fine. You can also cast from a phone or, on LG, AirPlay from an iPhone.
Not from the official stores. The one exception is that Android TV, Google TV and Amazon Fire TV let you sideload adult apps from outside the store, because they run on Android underneath. See our guides to Google TV and Android TV and Fire TV for how.
Effectively yes. Even a Roku or Vizio with no browser and no sideloading can receive a cast or AirPlay stream from your phone, and any TV with a spare HDMI port can take a streaming stick. There is no mainstream smart TV you cannot get porn onto by one method or another.
Some do. Samsung and LG have full browsers built in; Fire TV offers Amazon’s Silk browser; Google TV and Android TV can install one. Roku has no browser at all, which is why you cast or AirPlay to a Roku instead. See our Roku guide for that route.
Casting or AirPlaying from your phone. You browse on the phone, where typing and searching are easy, and the TV just plays the video. It works with nearly every recent TV — see our Chromecast (Android) and AirPlay (Apple) guides.
Plug a streaming stick into a spare HDMI port. A Google TV or Fire TV stick adds casting and sideloading, and an Apple TV adds AirPlay, for around $30 to $50. It turns any TV with an HDMI input into one that handles porn easily, usually with a better interface than built-in smart-TV software.
