Chromecast Now Lets You Use Your Own Photos As Its Wallpaper
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Remember back in April when hidden code spotted in the Chromecast implied that things like custom wallpapers and weather forecasts were coming soon?
Sure enough, Google has just pushed an update to its iOS and Android Chromecast apps, and these things (and more!) are now live.
While there’s nothing too earth-shattering going on here, this update lets you add a bit of flavor to your Chromecast’s idle screen — the one that shows on your TV if nothing is currently being streamed to the device.
Previously limited to displaying the current time and a randomly selected photo from Google’s relatively small collection, here’s what you can do now:
- Use your own photos as wallpapers. The photos have to be pulled in from your Google+ account, but you can pick and choose which albums you want to pop up on your screen.
- Display the weather at your Chromecast’s location.
- Display tech/political/business/world news headlines (though you can’t pick which topics to show). If you pop into the Chromecast app before the headline switches, you can click in to view the story.
- Add more Google-picked photos into the wallpaper rotation, including a bunch of art pieces and satellite photos of interesting places.
The iOS version is on the App Store now. The Android version is being rolled out to users in waves — though there are always ways to skip the queue if you’re feeling tinkery.
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