Google Home app updated with Cast shortcut on Now Playing screen

Abner Li | Sep 19 2019 - 1:50 pm PT

There are a number of ways to Cast content from your phone to smart devices. The most convenient is when developers integrate the Cast SDK so that controls are built right into the audio or video app. Mirroring your device is another solution, and Google Home 2.14.1 adds shortcuts to make that more apparent.

After updating to the latest version of Google Home for Android, visiting a Smart Display or speaker’s Now Playing screen will reveal a new “Cast my audio” or “Cast my screen” pill at the bottom of the page.

This opens a prompt that explains the existing “Cast to mirror device” capability, with Google warning how your “device is not optimized for casting, so your experience may vary.” On Android 10, you’ll see another system-level warning before preceding to stream any internal device audio or visuals.

In previous versions of the Google Home app, “Mirror device” was only located in the “Account” tab. That menu item is still present, but the new Now Playing shortcut is much more convenient and likely to be spotted by users.

Google is also testing a small tweak where “Add” is no longer a shortcut alongside Call Home, Broadcast, and Routines. Instead, it’s in the top-left corner of the app. This minor change helps declutter the row of colorful icons, but it’s not yet fully rolled out. Google Home 2.14.1 for Android is widely available in the Play Store this afternoon.