Google announced Aug. 29 that it has fully integrated its Google Cast service into its Chrome browser, eliminating the need for a separate app or extension to sling content from devices or web browsers to the living room TV.

The announcement means websites integrated with Google Cast will feature an option to stream to a TV when a Google Cast device — including the Chromecast HDMI streaming media player — is on the same network and connected to the TV.

In a blog post, Google product manager Stephen Konig said in August, people casted content using Google Cast more than 38 million times from Chrome browsers, watching and listening to 50 million-plus hours of content.

Read more at B&C

Confirming a rumor that emerged in April, Google Fiber announced Wednesday that it is adding Google Cast to Fiber TV boxes, a move that will help to extend a bridge to various over-the-top video services and applications.

Google Cast, the engine that drives the popular Chromecast streaming adapter, lets users beam and control OTT video to the TV via smartphones and tablets, Chromebooks and Chrome browsers on any computer. Once compatible devices need to link to the customer’s Fiber  WiFi network, customers simply tap the “Cast” button from the app to send the content to the TV.

Google Fiber will be adding that capability to Fiber TV boxes in the coming weeks, according to a blog post from Google Fiber product manager Jared Nusinoff. “And since Fiber TV comes with Google Cast technology built-in, no additional equipment or setup is needed,” he added.

Google Fiber hasn’t announced sub totals, but in a report issued in March MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett estimated that Google Fiber had just north of 53,000 video subs at the end of 2015, citing data from the U.S. Copyright Office.

Nusinoff notes that the integration of Google Cast will allow customers to use “thousands of apps” on the TV without switching inputs, including YouTube, Netflix, Google Play, Google Photos and Pandora, to name a few.

But some apps aren’t yet supported. Per Google Fiber's FAQ about the coming addition of Google Cast, some cast-enabled apps  won’t work with Fiber TV, including Hulu, WatchESPN, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Watch ABC, and HBO Now, the premium programmer’s new OTT service. However, HBO Go, HBO’s TVE service, will work for Google Fiber subs who are on the HBO Optional Package or Premium Package.

Google Fiber has been asked why its integration of Cast won’t support some apps, though a lack of streaming rights for some content on TV-connected platforms is the likely culprit.

The Google Fiber integration will expand the reach of Google’s casting technology, which has already been baked into some Vizio-made TVs, Android TV-powered TVs from makers such as Sony and Sharp, and Android TV-based streaming devices and consoles.

Comcast, meanwhile, has been beta-testing a more limited “Send to TV” feature for X1-enabled TVs using a “bookmarklet” app/extension for Chrome browsers (Comcast also supports Send to TV on Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer, but no longer for iOS and Android mobile devices, per this FAQ).

If you had plans to buy the Google Nexus Player, the first device to run on Android TV, your options are growing increasingly limited.

As reported by Droid Life and other media outlets, Google has stopped direct sales of the Asus-made Nexus Player via the Google Store.

“Nexus Player is still available on some retail sites,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “Android TV continues to be a living room favorite as one of the best smart TV experiences. We are pleased with the success and have seen millions of activations so far.”

Support for Nexus Players will continue, as Google recently released the Android N Developer Preview for it and is finalizing the Android N release for the Nexus Player.

And Google continues to expand the reach of Android TV, thanks to integrations with connected TVs from companies such as Sony, Sharp and Philips, as well as the 4K-capable Nvidia Shield gaming console/streamer. Prior to Google I/O last week, Xiaomi showed off an Android TV device with support for 4K and High Dynamic Range (HDR) called the Mi Box.

Google introduced the Nexus Player in October 2014, a platform that received some mixed reviews as it entered the market.  

During the Nexus Player’s earlier days, Sling TV promoted it as part of a bundle for customers who prepaid for three months of service (that promo ended in December 2015).  Time Warner Cable (now part of Charter Communications) offered free Nexus Players to a small group of customers after Rovi stopped selling the IP-connected Fan TV box.

While Android TV remains a key part of Google's living room strategy, it’s also been focused on integration of Google Cast, the technology that powers the popular Chromecast streaming adapter. Last week, Google announced it will bake in that capability in TVs coming from Toshiba, Philips, Magnavox, Westinghouse and Polaroid.

Google Cast, a technology that’s used with Chromecast and other devices that lets consumers fling OTT video from smartphones to the TV screen, will apparently become part of the Google Fiber arsenal.

Tech and gadget blogger Dave Zatz notes this week at ZatzNotFunny that he’s hearing that Google Cast will be coming to Google Fiber TV hardware soon, adding that some other evidence appears to back that up, including some Chromecast code and some leaked word from some beta testers.

Google Fiber offered no comment on the speculation and recently surfaced evidence, but integration of Google Cast would add some interesting OTT capabilities to the pay TV platform without having to go through the pain of building in separate apps. Plus, it would expand the reach of Google’s casting technology, which has already been baked into some Vizio-made TVs, Android TV-powered TVs from makers such as Sony and Sharp, and Android TV-based streaming devices and consoles.

In a similar vein, Comcast has been beta-testing a more limited “Send to TV” feature for X1-enabled TVs using a “bookmarklet” app/extension for Chrome browsers (Comcast also supports the feature on Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer, per this FAQ).

Elsewhere in Google Fiber land, the unit announced it was opening applications for a second year of the Digital Inclusion Fellowship. In partnership with Nonprofit Technology Network, 22 fellowship positons are being offered across 11 cities.

Google Fiber said it will again contribute more than $1 million to help administer the fellowship, noting that this year’s will be more focused on digital literacy. The deadline for applications is May 13. 

Support for Google Cast, the technology that powers the Chromecast streaming adapter, has been added to Vizio’s SmartCast P-Series TVs as well as the CE giant’s soundbars and speakers.

The integration means that consumers can use their smartphones and tablets to fling streaming video and other apps and content to the big screen. They can also mirror any website displayed on a Chrome browser on a laptop.

Every P-series comes with a Vizio’s 6-inch Android tablet remote, Adam Champy, product manager and Daily Daily Show Caster, announced in this blog post, confirming details that first emerged in a report last month.

In addition to the Chromecast, Google Cast technology is also present in Android TVs from several suppliers, including Sony, Sharp, TP Vision, as well as Android TV-powered consoles and other connected devices. Google, which introduced new Chromecast models last fall, has sold more than 20 million of the adapters  worldwide.

Champy also announced that Google is changing the name of the Chromecast app to the Google Cast app “to better reflect that Google Cast technology is now supported across a wide range of devices such as Chromecast, TVs, displays and speakers.”  The updated Google Cast app is rollout this week on Android and iOS, he said. 

Signaling a possible next step in Google’s video- and app-casting strategy, Vizio is gearing up to integrate Chromecast-like capability in some new TV models “as early as this spring,” Variety reported Wednesday, citing multiple people familiar with the arrangement.

According to the report, Vizio will back up that plan by teaming those TVs with Android-powered tablets that would as a fancy, dedicated.

Google said it does not comment on rumor and speculation, but if the purported collaboration moves ahead, it will help to extend Google’s casting ability well beyond the Chromecast, the company’s $35 streaming adapter.  Google, which launched a new version of the Chromecast (pictured) last fall, has sold more than 20 million of the devices worldwide.

As Variety points out, making a casting connection with Vizio (and perhaps with more TV makers down the road) raises questions about Google’s longer-term plans for Android TV, its new operating system for set-tops, smart TVs, gaming consoles and other types of connected TV platforms. Will this casting strategy, which would let users stream and control video and other types of apps from mobile device to the TV, complement or possibly replace what Google’s doing with Android TV?

At this point, I’d lean more toward the commentary side, as a casting-integration play could give Google an additional (and perhaps smoother) path to the television as Android TV struggles to gain much ground on rival platforms from Roku, Apple and Amazon. Plus, Google touted the progress of Android TV at CES, announcing that several additional suppliers, including two Roku TV partners (TCL and Hisense), were jumping on board, so that seems to suggest that they're not giving up on Android TV.

Google execs have also been mentioning both approaches in the same breath. “Dozens of partners are integrating Android TV and Google Cast technology into living room products launching this year,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, said on the company’s recent Q4 earnings call.

But Google might still be cementing its longer-term play and could end up leaning harder on Google Cast, as Variety also said it heard that Google has been talking to at least on more TV maker about adding Google Cast “without any on-screen apps to its TV sets.” 

Google still hasn’t revealed sales or shipment figures for Chromecast since the streaming adapter took the market by storm about 15 months ago, but it’s clear that usage of the platform is still on the rise.

Speaking at the GigaOm Structure Connect event on Tuesday, Google VP of product management Mario Queiroz said Chromecast users have tapped the cast button 650 million times, up from 400 million cast milestone reached in July, roughly a year after the product hit the market.

As for those other Chromecast numbers, Google’s still keeping those numbers close, but has sold “millions of devices…and that number keeps growing fast,” Queiroz said, noting that more than 6,000 developers are building north of 10,000 apps for the Google Cast ecosystem.

Queiroz was also asked to explain how Google is approaching the TV-connected market with essentially two types of products – the Chromecast and an expected flurry of devices that will run the new Android TV platform (while also supporting Google Cast).  

“Every TV in the home with broadband is an opportunity for us to connect to that TV,” he said.  But while the Chromecast is really an extension of the mobile experience, “Android TV is a platform,”  he added, noting that the new Nexus Player is a showcase of how that platform can be used.

Google’s also working with Philips, Sony and others to build Android TV directly into the TV set, but Queiroz also acknowledged that Google has work underway to embed the Chromecast’s functionality into devices as well.

“We’re building an ecosystem of  different end points and applications which can send content to those endpoints, so Chromecast is an end-point,” he explained. “Android TV devices will be another end point.”

So the point is that Google’s going to be supporting a lot of end points that connect to the TV.

Queiroz also confirmed that Google’s working on a second version of the  Chromecast, but declined to reveal anything about its feature set. “We want to bring the richness of this first screen/second screen experience to life,” he said.

The ZatzNotFunny blog has come across some new FCC filings that confirm that a new Chromecast is coming, but speculates that it could merely represent a minor revision to the device’s hardware.