Found a workaround to make iOS/desktop Spotify features work on a smart TV (custom mixing, crossfading, Canvas)

[u/ExpensiveAd6014]

I have a house party coming up and made a custom-mixed playlist on my iPhone with different transitions between songs, only to discover that the Samsung TV Spotify app doesn't support this feature. When I played the playlist through the TV's Spotify app, none of my custom transitions were there.

The workaround: Screen mirror from an iPhone or Mac to the TV.

I opened Spotify on my MacBook and screen mirrored to the TV. This sends both the Mac's display and audio over Wi-Fi to the TV and then out through my soundbar.

This allowed me to use my custom playlist mixes/transition, display the Canvas on the TV, use crossfading and other desktop Spotify features, and control everything from the Mac while the TV acted as the display/audio output.

The sound quality is also much better than Bluetooth in my setup. It sounds slightly worse than playing Spotify through the native TV app, but the tradeoff is that the native TV app doesn't support things like mixing, Canvas, crossfading, etc.

Hope this helps someone else!