pluto.tv Casting Experience
As the embedded Android product designer at Pluto TV, I led the redesign of our mobile casting experience in preparation for the Latin American launch. Users were running into issues like black screens, stuttering playback, and layout glitches—especially when switching between docked and full-screen modes. I focused on solving these edge cases and improving the overall flow to make casting from mobile to TV feel seamless and reliable. The updates boosted performance and stability, ensuring we delivered a polished, high-quality experience ahead of the launch.
Design Process
For the Android experience, I followed platform guidelines to make sure casting felt smooth and native. I designed flexible layouts that worked across phones, tablets, and foldables, using familiar Android patterns like swipe-back navigation and a persistent mini-player. Core features like casting, media controls, and full-screen playback were all prototyped using Google Cast SDK best practices. I also provided clean, dev-ready assets with clear interaction notes, and worked closely with engineers through QA to make sure everything worked across different devices, screen sizes, and OS versions.
Mobile - Live TV - Casting Flow
I designed the Android Casting Flow for Pluto TV, starting with a feature discovery modal that prompts users to "Try it Now," allowing them to select content and choose a device for casting, such as "Living Room TV." The flow includes a casting overlay and a mini controller for playback management, with a user-friendly interface that supports full-screen and landscape modes, navigational arrows, and options to switch channels or terminate the cast.
Mobile - VOD - Casting Flow
The user interface flow for a video-on-demand (VOD) app begins on the home screen, where users select movies or TV shows and can quickly access recent content through a mini controller. Once casting is initiated, users choose a device like "Channel Master 3539" from a transparent overlay, then manage playback using a casting controller that provides content details, playback controls, and a landscape mode for device connection, ensuring a seamless transition from mobile to TV.
Reciever UI
I designed the "Receiver UI" for Pluto TV's app on connected TVs (CTV), which displays content cast from a mobile device and includes playback and volume controls, along with additional content information. This interface enables users to interact with and control the content directly from the receiving device.
Casting Notifications
After reviewing Android Development guidelines, I designed two types of user-friendly casting notifications for Live TV and Video on Demand (VOD) in Figma, available in expanded and collapsed formats with program artwork. These notifications allow seamless TV management and multitasking on mobile devices, ensuring full compatibility with Android standards.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my redesign of Pluto’s mobile casting experience solved critical user pain points and laid the groundwork for international expansion. Prior to the update, users faced several issues that impacted engagement and satisfaction:
Black screens and poor image quality when casting to Chromecast.
Playback stuttering and freezing during casting sessions
Broken layouts when using the app in landscape mode
Inability to browse the app while casting
Casting stopped when app was backgrounded, especially on Android.
These issues caused a steady drop in how often users came back after the 5.0 launch, especially on Android. I tackled this by:
Background casting support
Dockable player for in-app browsing during casting
Improved landscape layout responsiveness
Updated Chromecast UI to match 5.0 mobile design
The updates led to fewer complaints, longer viewing sessions, and more reliable streaming for both live and on-demand shows. It also helped us launch successfully in Latin America—where a bad casting experience could’ve turned users away. With full language support and features matching competitors like Disney+, we saw more monthly active users and started gaining better insights into how households watch and what keeps them coming back.