Earlier this week, Google announced that the Chromecast app would be undergoing a rebrand to Google Cast to better reflect the range of Google Cast enabled devices now on the market. The update has hit Google Play and it’s brought with it some more functionality for those extra devices.
Previously the Chromecast app hasn’t picked up AndroidTV devices like the Nexus Player or the Sony Bravia AndroidTV, but after the update the Google Cast app now allows you to see those devices. The bonus of being able to see the devices in the Google Cast app means you can now control the Backdrop settings for those devices. Backdrop of course is the images that display on your Google Cast enabled device when it’s idle.
The functions for Backdrop control are now there, but according to Senior Program Manager at Android TV, Sascha Prüter on Google+, the ability to add your own photos from Google+ isn’t yet present – but will be in the future.
Also being updated is the Chromecast receiver app, the app which resides on your ‘Google approved Android TV devices’, this app has also been re-branded to ‘Google Cast’ Receiver – which should fix up some functions across the board.
The Google Cast and Google Cast Receiver app updates are available in Google Play right now, there’s no slow rollout so you should have already received the notification to update. If not, hit the links below to update.
Would be good if it lets you show photos from Google Photos as well as Google+ as the backdrop. I don’t use Google+ but I do use Photos.