For a long time now, people on your local WiFi network have been able to mess with your Chromecast session, and it’s all thanks a shared Cast notification feature that started showing up for users last year. This has resulted in plenty of hijinks where users have had their cast sessions annoyingly messed with in certain situations, like when inviting guests over for parties.
Now, it seems Google is aware of this annoyance and is taking some baby steps to help…
Basically, with its current implementation, any compatible Android device connected to your WiFi network will show a shared persistent notification for the current casting session. This is helpful if you have multiple Android devices in your home if you want to be able to control your media from any of your devices, but it gets annoying when the people connected aren’t supposed to be able to do that.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Google is actually locking this feature down yet. People who connect to your WiFi network can still manipulate the session (play, pause, stop, and change volume, depending on what’s being casted), but Google is at least making the notification a bit clearer. Now, a tipster for Android Police says that they’re see a new “A device on your Wi-Fi is casting” label on this notification.
So at the very least, those who are connected to your WiFi network will know that that notification isn’t there for no reason. So while it might keep them from stopping the session, anyone who wants to mess with your Google Cast can still do so. Hopefully Google is working on a way for only specific users with the appropriate permissions to be able to control the content they’re casting.
The best way for now to keep others from meddling with your cast, if you have this problem, is to lock down your WiFi and only allow those you trust to connect. But it’s good at this point to see that Google is aware of this minor annoyance and is at least testing some improvements.
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