Apple’s ecosystem is famously pretty locked down, however issues have improved loads over the previous few years. With the upcoming launch of iOS 16, Apple seems to be working in the direction of higher help for Chromecast and different casting requirements in apps.
Apple makes it attainable for Chromecast to get AirPlay-like remedy
In iOS 16, Apple is opening up the door for casting protocols resembling Google Forged (Chromecast) to be higher supported within the system. Because it stands right now, Chromecast is supported on iOS, however solely in choose apps, and often with an interface that isn’t native to the OS. Within the YouTube Music app on iOS, for instance, the Chromecast button within the app serves for each Chromecast targets and AirPlay targets.
However that will change in iOS 16, as Apple is introducing the “DeviceDiscoveryExtension,” a brand new software for apps to leverage native menus, resembling those used for AirPlay. Apple explains:
Use DeviceDiscoveryExtension (DDE) to find third-party media receivers to which your app can stream AV content material.
As a result of DDE runs in a system sandbox, the extension doesn’t have to ask the consumer for local-network or Bluetooth permissions. The picker view shows found third-party gadgets and protocols in the identical system menu as AirPlay, which supplies a unified device-selection expertise.
By our learn, this ought to enable Chromecast to have higher, extra native integration with iOS beginning with iOS 16. To be clear, Chromecast wouldn’t turn out to be a native a part of iOS. Relatively apps that help Chromecast would see casting targets in native menus, resembling those that AirPlay makes use of.
This may not solely present a greater expertise for these wanting to make use of AirPlay in apps that have already got Chromecast, however has the potential to make it simpler for Chromecast to be supported in additional apps. Different corporations with casting choices, resembling Spotify or Sonos, might additionally doubtlessly undertake this. As results of this alteration could be a single button in apps for casting, quite than having two or three, and even menus inside menus.
In the intervening time, we’ll have to attend and see precisely how that is applied in iOS 16. It’s our understanding that present apps might want to faucet into a brand new API, which Google must make accessible. It’ll be a number of months till we see how issues work out.
Max Weinbach contributed to this text.
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