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Google recently had their annual I/O Conference in San Francisco, CA where they discussed upcoming features to be launched to the Chromecast. Google’s I/O Conference is a gathering of developers to hear from Google execs on support for the next generation devices, apps, and software. I/O stands for input and output and also “Innovation in the Open” which attests to Google’s philosophy of having open web technologies like Android, Chrome, Google API, Web Toolkit, App Engine, and others. Google’s I/O conference first started in 2008 and was held between May 28-29 this year 2015.
At the Google I/O conference, two major announcements were made on the Chromecast front which would improve the functionality and experience for users like us.
Queuing between apps
One major frustration as a user is the inability to smoothly transition between different apps. As great as the support has been for Chromecast, your experience is limited to a single app and any queue you have saved will be lost once you stop casting and open another app to cast. Google plans to change this by the creation of a auto-queueing functionality to allow you to line up videos in a playlist from different apps. You will be able to manage the sequence, remove, and initiate a cast at will regardless of which app you have opened.
Chromecast Game Manager API
The second announcement is for the casual gamer who wants to play multi player games using Chromecast. Google announced the launch of Game Manager Application programming interface (API) which will allow more than one device connected to a single Chromecast. Previously, developers had to code this themselves but Google’ has made this much easier to do.
Google’s also launched Remote Display API which allows gamers to control their TV using their handset. This can allow you to use your phone as a motion sensor similar to Nintendo’s WiiMote.
