Google testing Assistant broadcasts on Chromecast with Google TV [Video]

Ben Schoon | Sep 27 2021 - 7:39 am PT

Google Assistant broadcasts are a very useful way to relay information to your family quickly, and it seems the company is working on expanding its reach just a bit further. It seems that Google is currently testing support for Assistant broadcasts on Chromecast with Google TV.

Rolling out to what seems like a limited number of users, Google Assistant broadcast messages appear to be showing up on Chromecast with Google TV in a limited capacity. We’ve observed the functionality on two of our devices and identified at least three other Chromecast owners seeing the same test.

In our testing, we’ve observed Google Assistant broadcasts appearing on Chromecast with Google TV as a full-screen pop-up similar to what’s shown on Google Assistant smart displays. The full-screen overlay shows a megaphone animation while the message is read aloud, but notably, there is no written text on the screen as we see on the smart displays.

This test from Google seems to be limited in functionality, too, as voice broadcasts do not work. Only written broadcasts using Google Assistant on a smartphone seem to trigger this functionality. Notably, too, broadcasts seem to only appear when users are on the homescreen of Google TV or in the Ambient Mode slideshow, not when media is playing. In one test, though, sending the broadcast did result in a delayed announcement from a Chromecast with Google TV that was turned off when the broadcast was initially sent.

It’s unclear at this point how widely Google is rolling this functionality out or if it intends to refine the feature further before rolling it out to all users. We are not seeing this functionality on devices running standard Android TV, only Google TV devices.