Google Chromecast Will Soon Be a Little More Like Apple TV

 By 
Karissa Bell
 on 
Google Chromecast Will Soon Be a Little More Like Apple TV
Credit: Niki Walker

Android smartphone and tablet owners will soon be able to mirror with Chromecast.

Google said it would update its Chromecast app this week to support mirroring between Android smartphones and tablets and televisions, a feature first announced at the Google I/O developer conference in June.

[seealso slug= "android-tv-games/"]

Google's $35 dongle already allows users to cast content from web pages and specific apps to their televisions, but until now Android owners could only fling content from apps that had Chromecast support baked in. With the upcoming update, Android smartphone and tablet owners will be able to mirror their devices' screens to their televisions through Chromecast's Android app.

"Now, anything on your Android device will appear on the TV," wrote Chromecast product manager Ambarish Kenghe in a blog post. "You can share photos stored on your phone with a group of friends, or scope out the scenery for your next family vacation together on the big screen using Google Earth."

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Mirroring can be enabled from within the Chromecast Android app. Credit: Google

Once updated, mirroring can be enabled by selecting "cast screen" from the Chromecast Android app. Nexus owners will also be able to mirror from their device's quick settings menu.

The feature, currently still in beta, will begin to roll out over "the next few days." Initially, it will only be available to a handful of devices, including the Nexus 4 and 5, Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5, LG G2 and G3, HTC One M7, and the 2013 Nexus 7 tablet, with support for more devices coming in future updates.

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