How to take screenshots on your Android Smart TV

Screenshots have become a very popular resource in recent years, especially with the increase in users on different social networks and on instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram. Therefore, it becomes important that you know how to take a screenshot on your Android Smart TV.

And it is that who else and who less, we have all shared on occasion a capture with a tweet, a message, or the frame of a series or movie that we liked a lot. Even the main consoles such as PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch allow you to capture scenes from the game to share them directly on the networks.

But in addition to all these devices, there is a very common one in our homes that also offers you the option of taking a snapshot of a specific moment in order to share it. We are talking about smart TVs, also known as Smart TVs.

Although it is usually very common to take a photo with the mobile to the screen to immortalize that fragment of the series, film, or YouTube video that has caught our attention, this technique usually gives somewhat poor results. The screen may appear blurry and streaking due to the scan lines being “frozen” in the photo.

There may also be flashes or reflections that prevent us from showing what we want clearly. For this reason, the best alternative is undoubtedly to take a screenshot on TV like the one we do with our mobile.

If you want to know how you can take a screenshot on your smart TV with Android TV, keep reading because we are going to explain it to you in a few simple steps.

How to take a screenshot on Android Smart TV

Android TV is basically Google’s version of the Android mobile operating system but configured specifically to operate on televisions. Although they are not very similar due to the difference in the hardware on which they operate, both operating systems share a function that allows us to take screenshots, although not all TV manufacturers add this option natively on their devices.

To check if your television with Android TV offers this function natively turn it on and take your remote control. In it, look for the power and volume down buttons and press both at the same time (as is done on mobile phones). If you hear a sound like a photo camera or see an animation on the screen, it has been done without a problem.

If the remote control doesn’t work, don’t worry, since some Android TV models have this native function within their own settings and that could be your case.

Press the Home button on your controller.

Inside the Android TV main menu, click on the gear icon located in the upper right and a new menu will open.

Look for an option called “Screenshot” and if it is click on it to take a screenshot at that moment.

Where do those catches go? To find the photo you just took, go to Android Settings> Device Preferences> Storage> Photos and Videos. The image should appear here, but it may not be so because in some cases the captures are not automatically dumped into that folder.

In that case, we recommend that you download the application, we use FX File Explorer on your TV. With it, you can take the images to another device to edit them, erase them from the TV memory, or share them.

Take screenshots on an Android TV Box

Not all Smart TVs have an integrated Android TV, but this is something that can be solved using an Android TV Box. To take a screenshot on this type of device we are going to use the same technique that we saw on Android TV.

That is, on the device’s remote control and press the power button and the volume down button simultaneously. If you see that a capture animation is shown on the screen on the TV or you hear a camera sound, the capture has been made without a problem.

If you have not managed to do it with the remote, it is time to move on to the second point: look for the function in the Android TV Box settings.

Press the Home button on the remote (it usually has a house icon) to open a pop-up menu. Scroll through the menu until you find the option “Screenshot”. If you find it, click on this option for the system to take the snapshot.

In some apps, it doesn’t work

It is possible that although you have the option to take screenshots on Android TV and WebOS, in some applications this function is not available. This is the case of Netflix or Disney +, two apps in which we cannot take snapshots of what is being played on TV or mobile, computer, or tablet.

The reason is that these types of services, which have a large amount of copyrighted content, have the ability to capture them to protect the authors. This means that in the same way that you cannot take captures and images, you will not be able to record the screen from your mobile or computer either.

That ends this article here. We hope that our readers would find this tutorial on how to take screenshots on Android Smart TV helpful. If you find it interesting, make sure to share this tutorial with your friends and family.