The Google Play team on Thursday took to Google+ and announced that Google Play Music and Play Movies & TV from the web are now fully Chromecast compatible. This means that Android and Google fans can finally cast their favorite song or show from the convenience of the Chrome browser to their television in the living room or family room.
In order to get this new casting feature working, make sure you have the Google Cast extension installed on your Chrome web browser. Next, go a head and find the cast icon in the Google Play web player. Click it while on the web and your movie, song, or tv show will shoot on over to your television via Chromecast. Just like magic – boom!
The new feature is just the latest in a string of features/apps which have been added recently to the ultra-cheap Chromecast. Google just this week announced a full stable of apps that lets users stream cloud-based content to their Chromecast. New additions by Google include streaming apps, RealPlayer Cloud, Plex, and Avia. I’m sure there are many others on the way too, so hopefully we hear more soon.
For those living in the dark these past few months, the Google Chromecast was announced earlier this year at Google I/O. It costs just $ 35 and offers comparable features to Apple’s $99 Apply TV. With Chromecast, users can stream music and movies from their iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone or tablet to their television. Chrome browser fan can also get in the action. Chromecast is extremely easy to use.
While Chromecast has been popular due to its pricing, its extremely limited app lineup still falls behind what is available on the Apple TV or Roku. This latest addition really ups the ante though and makes it extremely attractive at least for me as I spend a lot of time on the web.
What feature or app would you like to see added to Google’s Chromecast next? Do you use your Chromecast often? Feel free to let us know in the comments!