Chromecast now has guest mode, dog whistle, more Screencast support
Over the week Google has been pushing out an update to Chromecast app that enables a guest mode feature. This guest mode allows you to throw that YouTube viewing party you’ve always thought would be a cool idea where the guests control what’s up next from their phones.
While you’ve been able to do that if you got everyone on your network, “no once again the the password is – capital D percent sign hash lowercase p two spaces an at symbol uppercase F the emoji that looks like an inside out cow, the sound of purple, the word ‘password’ but asterix instead of any of the letters…” you can now do it using ultrasonic pairing, or an on-screen code.
You’ll need to stand in front of the TV speakers to hear the ultrasonic pairing tone, and it’s only on when you select to add a new guest for a few seconds. So there shouldn’t be any concern for annoying kids and dogs (who both should be able to hear the tones).
To enable this you’ll need to update to the latest Chromecast app, select your Chromecast dongle, and there should be a guest mode option there. I’m not at my house and the only Chromecast on my network belongs to someone else, so I’m not going to mess with their setup to see how to enable it.
Along with the guest mode, based on the Play Store reviews the Chromecast app has enabled Screencasting for the HTC One M8 and some Motorola phones along with possibly others.
Now the only thing the Chromecast feels lacking in is Amazon support, and that’s entirely because Amazon wants to deny them as we saw from the short-lived Primecast app that worked so well for the three days until Amazon squashed it.
The Chromecast app has also been updated to Material Design, which I’m still having issues determining whether I like or not.
It’s nice that nearly a year after Chromecast was released it’s now coming into its own and feeling like there’s solid work being done for it.
[Chromecast Blog]
