# Send a tab to a TV or screen

> Canonical HTML: https://screenrig.ai/docs/browser-extension

Show the web page you are looking at on a TV or digital signage screen in one click, and click again to stop. screenRIG is free. Pay only if you want more.

## Install

The extension is **screenRIG: Send Tab to TV or Digital Signage**. Install it from the Chrome Web Store for Chrome, or from Firefox Add-ons for Firefox. Edge, Brave, Arc and other Chromium browsers that install from the Chrome Web Store use the same listing.

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## Sign in

The extension uses your screenRIG dashboard sign-in, so there is no token to copy and no second account. When you are not signed in, clicking the icon opens the dashboard to sign in or create an account. screenRIG is free. Pay only if you want more.

## How it works

1. **Click the toolbar icon.** It lists the online screens, folders and tags of your current dashboard project. Search by name, tag or folder. With one online screen and no folder or tag to choose, the tab is sent straight away.
2. **Tick the targets and press Send.** Tick one screen or several, or a whole folder or tag.
3. **The tab shows full screen.** Each screen loads the tab's address as a takeover, ahead of schedules and campaigns, and the toolbar icon shows `ON`. A screenshot of a screen comes back so you can see the result.
4. **Click the icon again to stop.** The screens go back to what they were showing.

## Pick screens, folders or tags

A folder takes in the folders inside it, and a tag takes in every screen that carries it. Screens that are offline show the page when they come back. Screens the extension cannot reach are listed in the popup with the reason, such as a protected folder or a screen with no playlist assigned.

## Rotate several tabs, refresh and share length

Open **Options** to change how the tabs go out. The choices are remembered.

- **Tabs:** this tab, the tabs you selected in the tab strip, or every tab in the window. Up to 20 web pages go; other tabs are skipped and the popup says how many.
- **Show each page for:** 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute or 5 minutes. With more than one tab, the screens show each page in turn and start again.
- **Auto-refresh:** off, or every minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes or hour, which keeps a dashboard current.
- **Share for:** 1 hour, until the end of the day or 24 hours.
- **Show a QR code of the page:** a QR code in the bottom-right corner, so people can open the page on their phone.

## Show a page you are signed in to

Turn on **Include my sign-in** and the extension sends your browser's cookies for the pages you share, so a dashboard or report you are signed in to shows signed in on the screen. The browser asks you to allow each site the first time; the popup button reads Allow and send.

It works on the Players that set the cookies: Android TV, Google TV, the Amazon Signage Stick, Windows, Linux and Raspberry Pi. The web Player and the Samsung, LG and BrightSign Players ignore them and show the page signed out. The cookies are kept with the share, served only to the screens showing it and removed when it ends. A site can end a session that is used from another device; if it does, the screen shows the site's sign-in page. For a screen that stays up all day, prefer a view the site made for sharing.

## Add a page to a playlist instead

Under **Send to**, choose **Add to a playlist**, pick a playlist and press Add to playlist. Each tab becomes a full-screen web page in that playlist, with the page time, auto-refresh and QR code you set. The screens keep playing their playlist instead of being taken over. A playlist that needs review sends the page to your reviewers, and the popup links to the playlist in the dashboard. Your sign-in is not included when you add to a playlist.

## Send a link, image or video

Right-click a link, an image, a video or the page and choose **Send link to a screen**, **Send image to a screen**, **Send video to a screen** or **Send this page to a screen**. The popup opens with the address ready. Where the browser cannot open it, the address goes to the screens you used last and the toolbar badge shows the result.

## See what the screen shows

After a send, the popup shows a screenshot of the first online screen with its time and a refresh button, so you see what is on the glass without walking over. It lists any screen it skipped, and warns when a page refuses to be embedded, before you rely on it.

## What people put on a screen

- Tonight's menu on the bar TV.
- The weekend sale page on the shop-window screen.
- A KPI dashboard on the office wall, refreshed every few minutes.
- A welcome page, with a QR code to the Wi-Fi or sign-up page, in the lobby.
- The wait-time board in a clinic.
- Two or three status pages in turn on the operations screen.

For a longer walkthrough, see [Send a tab to a TV](https://screenrig.ai/guides/send-a-tab-to-a-tv.md).

## What to know

- **The screen loads the address itself.** It shows public pages and pages the screen's network can reach. A page that refuses to be embedded shows on Android TV, Google TV, the Amazon Signage Stick, Windows, Linux and Raspberry Pi, and not on the web Player or the Samsung, LG and BrightSign Players. The Apple TV Player shows no web pages.
- **A share ends by itself.** After the time you chose, 24 hours at most. The temporary playlist it uses does not appear in your playlists and is removed when the share ends.
- **One share at a time.** Sending again replaces the share before it.
- **Who can share.** The project owner and members who can approve changes. Screens in a protected folder cannot be shared to.
- **Another project.** To stop a share made in another project, switch the dashboard back to that project, then click the icon.
- **Web pages only.** Addresses that start with http or https.

## Permissions and privacy

The extension sends nothing until you click. It sends the address and title of the tabs you choose and, only with Include my sign-in on, the cookies of those tabs' sites. It collects no analytics and sets no tracking identifiers. Each permission serves one job:

- `activeTab` and `tabs`: the address and title of the tab you send, and of the other tabs only when you choose Selected tabs or All tabs.
- `storage`: your options and the running share, so the icon can stop it after the browser restarts.
- `contextMenus`: the right-click entries.
- `scripting` and `cookies`: only for Include my sign-in. Access to each site is asked from your click, never as all sites at once.
- Access to `screenrig.ai`: your screens, folders and playlists, through your dashboard session.

See the [privacy policy](https://screenrig.ai/privacy.md) for how screenRIG handles what it receives.

## Questions

**How do I send a browser tab to a TV?**
Install the screenRIG extension, open the page, click its toolbar icon, tick a screen or several and press Send. The page shows full screen there until you click the icon again.

**Is this the same as casting a tab?**
No. Casting streams your computer's tab to the screen. Here the screen loads the page's address itself, so it does not mirror your computer, you can close the tab or let the computer sleep, and the page shows at the screen's own size.

**Can I show a page that needs me to sign in?**
Yes, with Include my sign-in turned on. The extension sends your browser's cookies for the pages you share, after you allow each site. It works on Android TV, Google TV, the Amazon Signage Stick, Windows, Linux and Raspberry Pi. The web Player and the Samsung, LG and BrightSign Players show the page signed out, and a site that ends a session used from another device signs the screen out.

**Can I rotate several tabs on one screen?**
Yes. Choose Selected tabs or All tabs in this window under Options, up to 20 web pages, and set how long each page stays, from 10 seconds to 5 minutes. Auto-refresh reloads every page as often as every minute.

**How long does a share last?**
You choose: 1 hour, until the end of the day or 24 hours. Click the toolbar icon to stop sooner. The screens then go back to what they were showing.

**Why does the screen show a blocked page?**
Some sites tell browsers not to show them inside another page. Those pages show on Android TV, Google TV, the Amazon Signage Stick, Windows, Linux and Raspberry Pi, and not on the web Player or the Samsung, LG and BrightSign Players. The popup warns you after you send.

**Does the extension cost anything?**
screenRIG is free. Pay only if you want more.

## Agents

Your agent does the same job without a browser: ask it to put the address on a screen, as in [Display a website on a TV 24/7](https://screenrig.ai/guides/website-on-tv-24-7.md).

## Related

- [Start](https://screenrig.ai/docs/start.md): install the official plugin and create a project.
- [Players](https://screenrig.ai/docs/players.md): put the screenRIG Player on the screen a tab is sent to.
- [Authentication](https://screenrig.ai/docs/authentication.md): sessions, Read only, Propose and Manage.
- [Dashboard on a TV](https://screenrig.ai/guides/dashboard-on-tv.md): show key numbers without a sign-in on the TV.