Why Google has now decided to move away from Chromecast

Chromecast is disappearing from Google’s hardware portfolio after more than a decade. The company is discontinuing it to make room for the new Google TV streamer. In 2013, the timing was perfect for Chromecast’s success. Most TVs of that era had rudimentary entertainment apps that were often slow, so being able to cast content from your phone to a TV made a lot of sense.

But times have changed. With the Chromecast with Google TV in 2020, Google took an opposite path and created a much more traditional, relaxed entertainment experience. Casting took a back seat to carousels of content recommendations and native apps returned.

The Google TV streamer builds on that strategy by infusing the software with the intelligent Gemini AI. It brings smart home controls right to your TV screen. And yes, it will be faster than the often slow Chromecast. “It’s blazing fast, so it’s a higher-end model than the ones we’ve released so far,” says Shalini Govil-Pai, vice president and general manager of Google TV. I spoke with her last week to learn more about the idea behind Google’s $99 device, which goes on sale in late September.

“The Google TV streamer was our response to what a lot of our users were saying: ‘Hey, Chromecast is great and really cheap.’ But we can get cheap devices from a lot of players now,” Govil-Pai said. (Walmart’s Onn brand fills the sub-$50 price zone quite well with several Google TV streamers, and Amazon and Roku both sell devices that are in that impulse-buy range.)

So Google decided to focus on a higher-end device, and saw the Nvidia Shield – long touted as the most powerful Android TV streamer – as something to aspire to. “The Nvidia Shield was our gold price point as well as gold performance, and that’s exactly what it’s going to be with our Google TV streamer. So we’re very excited about it.”

And yet, even right after the announcement, some of our commenters were frustrated that Google had settled for just a 22 percent increase in CPU speed. There’s a good chance this thing will still underperform the rather old Shield. Why not just put a Tensor chip in there?

It all comes down to cost and offering the streamer at a price that’s acceptable to the average consumer. “We don’t know if there are features that would actually convince people to buy more expensive devices, but the market in general is telling us right now that people are probably not ready for that yet,” Govil-Pai said.

And even if it Is If it ends up being a more expensive living room device from Google, it sounds like performance won’t be the main justification. “Do we have enough functionality over time, say from a Gemini perspective, that actually makes it worth spending even more money? Then we’ll definitely look at that,” she said. “But at this point, I think that’s the competitive price point that we want to play at.”

Google has doubled the RAM on the Google TV streamer, which could play as big a role as the CPU boost in ensuring smoother day-to-day performance—and maintaining it after a year or two. The Chromecast with Google TV had a reputation for being OK out of the box, but gradually getting slower over time. Google’s decision to stick with Wi-Fi 5 on a streaming device is unfortunate, but at least there’s a built-in Gigabit Ethernet jack.

The Google TV Streamer is also relatively future-proof as the heart of the smart home. From the Google Home panel, you can quickly dim lights, view cameras, trigger automations, and so on. There’s also Matter support and a built-in Thread border router.

As for the new software features, Govil-Pai says Google is trying to embrace modern trends. With Gemini, you can create generative AI screensavers that appear when the Google TV streamer is in ambient mode — similar to a Frame TV — or ask it to display photos from a recent trip. On a related note, I asked Govil-Pai why there isn’t yet a proper Google Photos app for the company’s TV platform. “In our user studies, we found that most people don’t actually want to open the app on the TV. They just want to get to things very quickly, and that’s why we believe the voice-based interactions — like ‘Hey, show me my memories from last year’ — are the more relevant experience.”

On the Google TV streamer, Gemini also displays overview summaries of shows and movies when you click on their detail pages. The outgoing Chromecast already shows Rotten tomatoes Ratings and IMDB ratings, but this will aggregate feedback from more places. “You can see a summary across the web of what people are saying about this show,” Govil-Pai said. “Like: Is it great? Is it not so great but really good for people who love science fiction? All of that is aggregated for you.” Google believes LLMs can also provide more accurate recommendations than the fairly general categories Google TV currently presents.

Despite all these forward-thinking features, one of Govil-Pai’s favorite innovations is one of the simplest: The Google TV streamer has a remote search button on the back of the device. When you press it, the remote beeps, making it easier to find on movie night. You’re on the move, Apple, and no… searching for a remote on my phone is not the answer.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge