Google launched the Chromecast earlier this year, the $35 HDMI dongle has a lot of potential that has been locked down by the company. Immediately after it was released, independent developers managed to root the Chromecast, opening up a world of possibilities. Google then rolled out an update, breaking the ability to root the dongle. As of now users can only stream content from selected apps such as Netflix, YouTube, HBO Go etc, but its possible that the company might release an update soon that would bring a major feature. Android 4.4.1 was recently released and in its code, hints have been found of a feature that would allow users to mirror the screen of their Android device to Chromecast.
Koushik Dutta, co-founder of CyanogenMod, made this discovery. He believes that by the looks of things within the code, its possible that Google might switch on Android screen mirroring to Chromecast “very soon.” However, since only the OEM and Google have the API available to them, similar solutions to different hardware can not be built. Its seems logical for Google to go down this road, at least it will offer feature parity with iOS devices. Apple already allows users to mirror the screen of their iOS devices through the Apple TV. With Chromecast, it can essentially offer the same functionality at a fraction of the cost.
Filed in . Read more about Android, Chromecast and Google.