The Chromecast is a great device for streaming media like movies, TV, and music, but not so much for social network feeds. Whether or not you’ve ever wanted to cast your social content to the big screen, it appears that Facebook may be looking to add Chromecast support to the app in the future, but not in the way that you think, at least, not for the entire app. According to a new leaked image, Facebook seems to be testing Chromecast support for videos on the platform, although these tests are said to be part of the Facebook beta and not the regular app that’s available for download from the Play Store.
Chromecast support is already available for videos via the Facebook mobile website thanks to the Chromecast’s ability to detect HTML videos, so it would appear that Facebook wants to add this capability to the app for users who may not use the mobile site. With Chromecast support waiting in the wings, it’s the perfect tool for users of the app to be able to cast the videos of people they may follow that stream content through Facebook’s new Live Video feature, which Facebook started rolling out the tab for to their mobile app recently.
Although the Chromecast support seems to be aimed at allowing the casting of videos being streamed through the app, it would also serve useful for being able to cast up 360-degree photos which Facebook recently announced would be gaining support inside of the app in the near future. Although the Chromecast icon is appearing for some users who are using the beta version of Facebook’s Android app, it’s likely that not all users who have the beta version of the app will see the button appear when starting to watch a video. It’s also worth noting that the Chromecast button only seems to be visible, but not functional, as when tapping the icon it was reported to have hung at the loading screen where a Facebook logo appears, presumably before the video is supposed to start playback on the big screen. When and iff Facebook rolls this feature out to the main app is unclear at the moment.
