Google's Chromecast stopped being a simple screen replicator a long time ago. Thanks to the applications that currently make up the brand's ecosystem, the possibilities that Chromecast offer us are much broader than those of other competing devices. On this occasion we have gathered several original ideas to take full advantage of the Google Chromecast in its four versions released to date: Chromecast, Chromecast 2, Chromecast 3 and Chromecast Ultra.
What Chromecast do I buy? Guide to available models
Turn the Google Chromecast into a dance machine
Just Dance Now is the game that makes it physically possible to use Chromecast as a dance machine. The popular Ubisoft saga has reached the Google device with more than 500 songs and 40 titles belonging to Just Dance 2018, such as Despacito, by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, Shape of you, by Ed Sheeran, or Blackmail, by Maluma and Shakira .
As with the console versions of the game, Just Dance Now forces us to grab the phone to detect all dance movements . By not having a camera to use, the game uses the movement sensors of the mobile to identify the steps.
Emulate old consoles on your mobile with Chromecast
Although the execution of games in Chromecast is quite limited by the latency of the WiFi networks, there are some applications that allow us to emulate old consoles. Consoles like the Nintendo NES or the Game Boy Color . And best of all, free!
Due to the limitations that we have just mentioned, the operation of this type of emulators can be erratic at times . It should be noted that the emulators do not include serial games, but we will have to load the original game file from the application's file explorer to start the emulation.
- Download CastNES for Android
- Download Cast GBC for Android
Or use the Chromecast as a play station
There is a whole world of games and applications beyond console emulators. Games like Angry Birds Friends, Angry Birds Go, Alien Invaders, Deer Hunter, RISK: Global Domination or Tower Construction 3D , among others. In fact, on Google Play we can find dozens of different titles compatible with the Google Chromecast, from casual games to 'online' titles. Just type 'Chromecast games' in the Google store search engine to see all the titles compatible with the Google device.
Google Chromecast as a multimedia center in your living room
Setting up a multimedia center at home no longer requires NAS servers or external hard drives. Thanks to applications like VLC or Solid Explorer we can run any video and sound file on the Chromecast as if it were a multimedia center. The advantage of VLC is that it supports a good number of uncompressed video formats , such as FLAC or MKV. As for Solid Explorer, the local file manager allows us to open practically any element of the phone's internal memory, from documents in PDF or Word formats to PowerPoint presentations and images in JPG or PNG. If our phone is compatible with USB OTG (USB On The Go) technology, the browser will recognize any external device that we connect to the mobile, be it an external hard drive or a pendrive.
- Download VLC for Android
- Download Solid Explorer for Android
Use your TV as a very powerful Smart TV
Many users buy a Chromecast from Google with the idea of turning their televisions into a Smart TV for use . Unfortunately, the device does not have a separate interface, like Android TV or Apple TV. But this does not mean that we cannot use our televisions as a smart TV.
Thanks to applications such as Kodi, Web Video Cast or Wiseplay, we can raise the possibilities of the Chromecast to those of a conventional smart TV. See series and movies by catalog, play television channels from other countries live , watch videos from Facebook, Twitter or any website with a video player ... The possibilities of these three applications combined are practically unlimited. It is worth saying that Kodi is not compatible with Chromecast natively, so we will have to resort to an alternative method to make the application compatible with the Google environment.
- Download Kodi for Android
- Download Web Video Cast for Android
- Download Wiseplay for Android
Use Zoom on Chromecast to make video calls from TV
Yes, you read it right. As with Kodi, Zoom does not support casting the application on Chromecast. For this reason, we are forced to duplicate the phone screen on the TV from the Google Home application options . We can also make use of the Transmit to Smart TV application, which we can download for free from the Google store. The advantage of Google Home is that the latency is much lower than any other tool.
After configuring the mirroring of the screen on our mobile phone, the ideal is to place it just below the television so that the camera captures our face from a relatively high position.
- Download Cast to Smart TV
Did someone say 'karaoke'?
So is. Although there is no specific application to use the Chromecast as karaoke, tools like Musicxmatch allow us to stamp the lyrics of the songs that are played on the Google device on the screen . The advantage of this application over other similar ones is that it is compatible with a good handful of music streaming services, such as Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Soundcloud or Google Play Music.
- Download MusixMatch for Android
9 essential apps if you want to get the most out of your Chromecast