Google announces new features for the Chromecast ecosystem

CES 2024 is in full swing, and companies are using the event to showcase their hardware and software innovations. Google has announced a bunch of new upgrades to the Chromecast ecosystem, such as expanding Fast Pair support to Chromecast with Google TV, expanding casting abilities to more apps and devices, and more.

Fast Pair support comes to Chromecast with Google TV and other devices

Fast Pair comes in clutch when you have a new Bluetooth accessory to pair with your devices, making it a one-click and rather seamless process. The feature is available on Android phones and Chromebooks, and in the next month, Google will be expanding Fast Pair to Chromecast with Google TV. Later in the year, the feature will be expanded to more Google TV devices.

With Fast Pair, you only need to put your accessory in pairing mode, and your accessory will show up as a prompt on your Chromecast with Google TV. For Fast Pair to work, your accessory needs to support Bluetooth Low Energy, and your host device (Chromecast with Google TV, in this case) needs to have Android location services turned on.

Chromecast now supports TikTok

“Chromecast built-in” is the consumer-facing branding that is often used to refer to Google’s proprietary Google Cast protocol. Google Cast supports both mirroring content from your host device to your receiver device, as well as running the casted app locally on the receiver device (which leaves you free to do other things on your host device), so it is better than standard screen mirroring, albeit proprietary.

You can now cast TikTok content from your phone to your Chromecast built-in devices. In the near future, you will also be able to cast live videos from TikTok to your TV and other Chromecast built-in devices. Look out for the Cast icon within TikTok on your phone to know when you can cast content to other devices.

Pixel phones will soon be able to cast to Pixel Tablet when in proximity

Coming later this year, Pixel users will be able to cast playing content from Spotify and YouTube Music to a docked Pixel Tablet simply when the devices are close to each other. This would remove the friction in the casting process and make casting as simple as gently tapping your Pixel phone to your docked Pixel Tablet.

The feature is referred to as “Cast to devices nearby” and it aims to provide a seamless media transfer between Pixel phones and docked Pixel Tablet. It works in both directions too.

More devices launching with Chromecast built-in

Chromecast built-in is coming to the 2024 LG TV series. LG Hospitality and Healthcare devices will also get Chromecast built-in support later in 2024, letting users cast content on LG TVs in their hotel rooms without having to log in and log out of apps on the TV.

Further, Chromecast built-in is also available on Google TV devices launching in 2024, such as the 2024 Hisense ULED and ULED X series, the TCL Q Class and QM7 line, and more.