Nokia Play To updated for Windows Phone 8.1, new DLNA devices

By Daniel Rubino
published

The Nokia Play To app for streaming media content to your favorite DLNA devices, including the Xbox series, has received a modest update today. The latest version bumps the popular media app to version 3.2.13.

While the version number may be a little gangly, they did include a nice fat changelog, showing some substantive improvements.

Let’s take a look.

Nokia Play To 3.2.13

  • Slideshow feature for images
  • Support for Windows Phone 8.1
  • When running in the background, Nokia Play to now resumes more efficiently
  • Supports additional DLNA devices
  • Bug fixes

The update seems to coincide with the Lumia 630 and Lumia 930 releases, ensuring everything works well with those devices. In addition, we wouldn’t be surprised if this has optimizations for Lumia Cyan, the forthcoming firmware update due to arrive with those Windows Phone 8.1 updates. Adding support for additional DLNA devices is always welcomed as are those bug fixes and efficient resume.

Three different versions (wait, what?)

To make things confusing, there are two apps, but only one has the update:

  1. Nokia Play To
  2. Play To (from Nokia)

And if you want to get technical, the Windows Phone 7.5 version is still there too (skipping a link to avoid confusion). The one that updated today is ‘Nokia Play To’ and was likely the previous ‘beta’ version of the app.

Which one should you be using? We’d of course choose the one updated on May 28 and not January 17, but hey, it’s your device.

Pick up Nokia Play To here in the Store. Lumia devices only.

QR: New Play To

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

58 Comments
  • Still one of my fav apps
  • Well it doesn't works on my 720 message pops up some error occurred try restarting the app and phone :/
  • Move the app to the phone with storage sense I had the same problem five minutes ago, and now it work to me in 620.
  • Edward, how do you do that? can you explain a little more please..... I desperately need to stream music and videos to my denon. Inhave this other version of Play To that doesn't stream all my music, it's weird, it streams just a few songs of all the songs I have on my L920. Thank you
  • That advice doesn't refer to your 920 since it has no external memory card. Your app is already on your phone's internal storage. But anyway, Play To on my 920 plays smooth on my 920 to my Bravia TV. What OS do you have, 8.0 or 8.1? Maybe the problem is with your destination, have you tried any other TVs/devices? And to you and to Daniel Rubino, how do you manage to use another version of Play To, the one from january? As I start it, it says it must be updated to another app and redirects me right to the store.
  • Thank you SargeT. I have WP 8.1 and I have installed the PLAY TO app since I got my 920, about one year ago. I have version 2.2.3.2 and I can stream pictures and videos to my SamsungTV with no problem. I have problems when streaming my music (music I have bought) to my DENON AVR. Out of the 30 songs I have bought from NokiaMusic (most of them) or XBox music I can only stream about 5 songs. WHY?? I don't know. All the other songs just try to be played and then jumps to the next one without playing it, and then to the next, and so on....... So I was glad to hear there is another/different Nokia PlayTo, which is the one on this articule, so I immediately downloaded it and when trying to open it I have this message: "INCORRECT APP VERSION, this Nokia Play to verion will NOT work on your Nokia Lumia, but you can download from our store the version before this one." and it goes to the one I already have installed. I live in Mexico, I hope that this Nokia Play to is not restricted to US only!!! 
  • The songs being skipped probably have DRM restrictions. Are you sure you bought non DRM mp3 songs? I'm experiencing the same restrictions on my 920.
  • I don't really know, I just buy/download the songs from Nokia music and a few on xbox music. Forgive my ignorance, but what is DRM and how do I find out if my songs have that restriction?
  • Thank you I had it installed on my SD card and moved it to phone works great.
  • Thx for the tip. I had the same problem. :D thx a lot ^^
  • Can you steam YouTube as well?
  • Nope, Google won't show steaming YouTube.
  • Steam belongs to Valve; YouTube belongs to Google...
  • Lol
  • Yes!! Finally Nokia has did something!!
  • Still crashing for me on Lumia 1320, WP8.1
  • Moved from SD to Internal Memory already with Storage Sense ? My 720 solved by doing this.
  • Not getting opened after update..
  • Move the app to your phone storage
  • Needs to be more like AirPlay, but I like these improvements they're making. :)
  • Still crashes on my Lumia 1520, where's the Nokia motion beta update.
  • Works fine on my 1520...
  • Are you on 8.1 cause I uninstalled downloaded again and still says an error has occurred please restart. And Nokia motion beta does not read steps anymore.
  • Move the app to phone memory. It will start working.
  • wonder if apple tv and other propriatery devices will ever get support first hand or third party, that would be epic if it ever happens
  • Microsoft should make Microsoft Xbox tv and sell it in all gaming countries. For that we need an OEM which is highly recognized or used in collaboration.
  • They should. It should be part of Xbox and have a bluray player plus all the apps on Xbox as well as a mic to control through talk. Also put hdmi pass through in it. So kinda like a cheap xbox one without the gaming capabilities. Sell it for 50 or70 bucks on release.
  • Needs ps3 support other wise pretty useless
  • More like the PS3 is pretty useless. Zing! Xbox rules.
  • Do you know the definition of the word "useless"? Lots of people have use for this app. Not being compatible with a PS3 doesn't negate that.
  • The app doesn't even open anymore for me. "Something went wrong and Nokia Play to needs to close. Try restarting your phone then reopen the app." I've restarted the phone three times and it still doesn't work...
  • i had that too. move it from sd card to phone.
  • Doesn't support DMS, useless to me.
  • I had that issue on L920. I uninstalled app and reinstall it. Now working fine
  • Great :)
    Can't wait to test it out when home from work. One of my absolute favorite apps on my 1020 :D
  • Unable to install on Lumia 630. Does the 630 have the required hardware to run this app?
  • Have tried this before with my Lumia 920 and B&O 11-46 TV and nothing.  This update and the TV is found. Better still I can play music, ctream video content and show pictures.  Wonderful!  And now getting the functionality from the phone and more importantly from the TV!  Happy man.
  • Aaaaa Crap. "This app is not available for your device". (Lumia 810, Amber, WP8.1). I still have the older version installed, and it sometimes works.
  • Once the app installed on my L920........  this app won't work for your device" CRAP! Why, I'm on Amber firmware..
  • Same here. 810, v8.1. I rarely use the older version. Funny enough, the 521 I had supported this while in beta on GDR3 + Amber.
  • Finally a version that pushes properly to the low-cost WD Play ($50) with its DLNA DMR ability!  Works with my 928 and 8.1. http://www.amazon.com/Play-Media-Player-2013-Model/dp/B008YDUTRO  
  • Forgive me, but I actually can't comprehend what this app does. Could anyone please tell me.
  • Allows you to send photos and videos to DLNA compatible devices. Although, I have had problems getting it to work with Xbox One. Work well with the 360 though.
  • One of my gripes with Windows Phone's implementation of this is the multiplicity of apps needed to achieve this. On iOS with Apple TV, you can stream directly from applications, and you can stream almost any audio or video files. This is too limited.
  • Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers.... You get the idea. Seriously though, one would think that developers could implement DLNA support into their application. However, it's possible DLNA is a Nokia thing and isn't accessible by third parties, idk. But if it isn't exclusive to OEMs, then the problem isn't the OS, it's the developers.
  • DLNA is an open standard, anyone can implement it. It is not entirely comparable to AirPlay either. 
  • Can it stream Pandora, Spotify and Rhapsody? Like Airplay can.
  • If they dont add native play to in WP 8.1 then Im out. I have been waiting for this for too long. Why cant we ping our music to any device via Xbox music or any other native app for that matter. We need Airplay and need it now please.
  • "native" DLNA is harder than you think. on Windows 8, most apps rely on the charms bar to stream using the devices charm. However, Windows Phone doesn't have a charms bar. This means any app that wishes to utilize DLNA must implement the feature within their app. In fact, it's possible that the OS already sports DLNA support, and the PlayTo app is merely the only software utilizing such. In which case: Developers, Developers, Developers.
  • Agreed. BTW, the charms bar's shared functionality you are referring to is called "contract". Contracts are the way of consuming system APIs via third-party apps. Those are present in both WPRT, WinRT and other msft technologies (WCF services yada yada). For the charms-bar adornment, we have shared menu items (such as "share") in Windows Phone. That is; different UI but same UX.
  • I agree. This should not be hard to add since you can do this in windows 8.1. I was sure that it was supposed to be supported in wp 8.1 but in the dev preview theres is not. This is one of the things they really need to add to compete with ios and android.
  • Will this stream Xbox Music DRM tracks to my Xbox One similar to how Windows 8.1 does?
  • Still no support to stream from Nokia MixRadio - or push YouTube. DLNA playback definately needs to be integrated, at the very least as a Audio option similar to bluetooth. In the meantime, Nokia should add Play To option within MixRadio itself/
  • I agree, WP needs to have an AIRPLAY like APP right NOW!!! I really like the NokiaMix Radio app. It look so cool!! BUT it needs some improvements (on WP the ability to scroll the song ffwd or rwd, create playlist on the phone in a simply manner, STREAM My music or MIXES to a AVR or something) I really don't like the Xbox music app, but it has somethings that NokiaMix radio doesn't. NokiaMixRadio on my L2520 (Win RT) has the ability to stream with PLAY to. WindowsPhone needs this ability to with a native app, like APPLE's Airplay. I really don't understand how Joe Belifore is still the head of WP, they're not hungry enough. Probably they like the 3% share of WP globally. Aren't APPs like a software?? Isn't Microsoft the biggest software company in THE WORLD??? WAKE UP MSFT............    
  • Appreciated....thank you now works :) but i had to change my region to update this..in india its showing the old one only ..hmm
  • Hey guys i have installed in phone memory.. running win 8.1 on L625 and still unable to steam to my PC. Help!
  • Photo ok, music ok but video not .. Nokia 630 and tv Finlux (VESTEL chassis)
  • it would be a useful app if it allowed me to DLNA from a NAS drive to a DLNA media renderer using my phone to control what's played. I can use it to play from my phone to the renderer but I can't see the NAS on it. All the other dlna apps have the issue that when you try and stream a few tracks the lock screen kills the DLNA control and the music stops.  It's so close to being good but unfortunately not there. Al .