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Android screencasting arrives for Chromecast in coming days
The latest update to Android’s Chromecast app will begin to introduce some of the new features unveiled at this year’s Google I/O. Specifically, with the 1.7 update Android smartphone and tablet users will have the ability to mirror their screens via Chromecast.
The feature not only allows users to display their Android homescreens on a Chromecast-connected TV or other device, but it also means any application can now be displayed via Google’s budget-friendly streaming dongle. Users won’t have to wait for Chromecast to be enabled on an app-by-app basis.
Upon downloading the update, users will find a “Cast Screen” option among the others listed in the Chromecast app’s navigation drawer. Nexus devices will see a toggle fro screencasting directly in the Android quick settings menu. Once enabled, the user can navigate their phone in the normal manner with a one-to-one projection appearing via Chromecast.
Screencasting is still being dubbed a beta feature, and it unfortunately will not be available to all users immediately. Google says the new capabilities will “roll out to popular Android phone [and] tablets from Samsung, HTC, LG, and others” first. The Chromecast 1.7 update should reach Google Play in the coming days.
Android L Keyboard pulled from Google Play
We should have seen this one coming. After Android L’s revamped keyboard was ripped from a developer preview and repackaged for use with older Android builds, Google has pulled it from the Play Store. The app, which as a rip straight from Android L was far from the original creation of developer Shen Ye, was found to violate certain aspects of Google’s Developer Distribution Agreement.
What is really surprising is just how long it actually took for Google to take action. The Android L Keyboard had amassed 800,000 downloads since it appeared on Google Play shortly after last month’s Google I/O keynote.
Google currently offers their own Google Keyboard via the Play Store, and app which is more or less the same as Ye’s Android L Keyboard minus the Android L updates, particularly the Material Design theme. This surely isn’t the last we will see of the Android L Keyboard, however. For rooted users and those willing to side-load an APK, distribution channels outside of Google Play shouldn’t be too hard to track down.
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