When a user of a device set requests a presentation of a content item, the presentation is often carried out on the device with which the user initiated the request, or a different device that the user specifically chooses. The resulting presentation may exhibit lower quality than if the content item were presented using a different device of the device set, but the user may be unaware of the relative merits of the devices, or unwilling to perform the actions to transfer the presentation to a different device. Instead, an automated comparison of the device properties of the devices with the content properties of the content item may inform an automated identification, and recommendation to the user, of an alternative device that is more suitable for presenting the content item. If the user accepts the recommendation, the presentation of the content item may be transferred to the recommended device.