Why text2tv exists

I'm Shane, and for years I've been trying to get photos and messages onto our TV during parties and family gatherings. Google Photos live albums. A Slack channel piped to the screen. A custom app I built myself. None of it stuck — every attempt got a polite shrug from our guests.

About six months ago, something finally worked. I put a simple message on our TV: "Take control of this TV. Text photos to 855-123-4567." That night, my oldest teenager had a dozen friends over, and they got it instantly. No instructions needed. They laughed and sent more than 50 photos to our TV before the night was over. text2tv was born.

It's gone through countless iterations since, and my wife and kids still won't stop using it. Christmas dinner turned into a roast session of caption ideas. One of my friends spent an entire evening trying to climb the leaderboard. My brother texts a funny photo from Philly every once in a while, just because. The TV has gone from a black square on the wall to something that actually brings us together.

Lately I've been turning text2tv into something anyone can use for a single event. The whole point is that there's nothing to figure out — no app, no accounts for guests, no QR code, no setup. If you have a smart TV and your guests can text, it works. Each host gets a dedicated phone number for their event, and guests spend the night texting photos and messages to the screen.

I'm launching it at my 50th birthday party in May 2026, with about 30 family members flying in from around the world. This is a solo passion project, not a VC-backed startup — phone numbers are a finite resource, so I'm growing carefully and keeping things small while I learn.

If you'd like to host an event of your own, use FOUNDER for 50% off while we're still early.