Google Cast- the browser extension which allows you to stream web content to your TV and other devices through Chromecast is now available in the browser itself. Since its launch over two years back, Google has kept it in test phase so far through a browser extension. People just needed to click on an extension button to send any web media to their smart TVs through Chromecast.

Google announced the development of the same via a blog post today. Stephen Konig, Product Manager at Google said that over the past couple of years, Casting from Chrome has become quite popular.

He claimed that people have used Cast from Chrome more than 38 million times during which they streamed more than 50 million hours of content.

“Today we’re happy to announce that Google Cast is now built fully into Chrome, and anyone can now Cast without having to install or configure anything,”

wrote Konig in the blog post.

You can find the Cast option from the menu of Chrome or by right clicking on any web page opened in Chrome.
Apart from it, you can see a Cast icon appear on the websites which have an automatic integration with Cast and when you are on the same network as your Cast device. You can play the website content via a couple of clicks of that icon.

However, there are a lot of other ways to use Cast than just playing media content from the web. You can share anything through Cast in video calls in Hangouts. You can also use Cast option for sharing to Cast for Education app which Google announced recently.

Clearly, Google is now trying to expand its offerings from just PCs and smartphones to other physical devices in living rooms of people through Chromecast and Google Cast.

The company has come up with new Cast devices like Chromecast Audio and enabled people to connect Chromecast to third party speakers and TVs. It has also partnered with other manufacturers to make devices specifically compatible with Chromacast.

With the latest integration of Google Cast within the browser, Google has made it even simpler for people to use Casting. You can, however, continue to use browser extension for Casting from Chrome if that is what you prefer. Otherwise, you only need to have an updated version of Google Chrome to get an inbuilt Cast functionality.