Google integrates Cast protocol in Chrome – update

Google has made it possible in Chrome to directly ‘cast’ tabs via the Cast protocol, eliminating the need to use the Cast extension. The function still needs to be activated manually at this point.

François Beaufort, who works as a Chromium evangelist at Google, said in a post on Google+ that the Chromium team is experimenting with the Cast integration. Chrome beta users can already activate the feature by entering chrome://flags/#media-router and enabling Media Router here. Next, the Google Cast extension will be disabled and users will be presented with the option to ‘cast’ when they right-click in a tab.

Perhaps Google will also implement the Cast integration in the stable release of Chrome. However, nothing has been announced about it yet. The new method works on the basis of the Media Router, a new component of Chrome that Beaufort first wrote about in February 2015.

Update 15:11: Tweaker paralyz3 reports in the comments that the function also works in the stable release of Chrome. Here too, the Cast function still has to be activated manually, but then via chrome://flags/#enable-media-router. Google has not officially announced the feature yet, so it is probably an experiment. On the stable release of Chrome, a Cast button is shown in the extension box after enabling the feature. The option in the right-click menu is also available.