Chromecast: A Streaming Solution
Ever had a picture or a video that you have wanted to share with a bunch of friends in the same room but didn’t really have the room to have them all huddle around you looking at a tiny screen of a device? The need to stream content from a device to a television screen has always been a difficult challenge but Google’s Chromecast solution looks to have solved many of these frustrating moments.
What is Chromecast?
Chromecast is a digital media player that plays audio/video content (as well as some games and web browsers) on a high-definition display by streaming it via Wi-Fi. Chromecast-enabled mobile and web apps are developed to give users the ability to display content to their displays.
Receiver Applications
When developing for Chromecast, there are many elements that a company must pay special attention to in order to give the user a fulfilling experience. The most important of any of these elements is the user interface.
The user interface (on the receiver app side) has three possibilities when it comes to development with Chromecast: default media, styled media and custom receivers.
One main question to ask is “does my application require custom styling”? If the answer is no, the easy choice is to use the default media receiver. This choice is considered beneficial to those that are looking to just stream content without the need for stylish UI or loads of custom layouts.
The Styled Media Receiver allows for a little more options in terms of colors and branding assets but that is as far as it goes for customization. This options gives the developer room to show who they are and what they do but makes it simple to just stream content.
The most customizable option is the Custom Receiver because it allows the streaming of content such as games and image galleries on top of all the typical content but also anything that requires digital rights management (DRM). You can fully support content protected with DRM by using a Custom Receiver that will set up user authentication. You can customize the UI as you please because it is an HTML5 application that is hosted on a local server (not hosted by Google) and must be implemented using the Javascript Receiver API.
Documentation
Google has an extensive documentation system for Chromecast with their Google Cast API Reference. This documentation covers the two types of applications that can be developed for Chromecast: sender and receiver.
This documentation is important because of the differentiation between Android, iOS and Chrome devices that need to have the sender application APIs incorporated and then the devices that the receiver applications are involved with. The inclusion of Google Play Services and the “media router” library for Android can make things complicated but the documentation details the steps to take to conquer any issues.
Community and Sample Applications
In most cases, it is the community surrounding a product that can truly save hundreds of thousands of hours of development time for any company. Chromecast has a surreal following of members who drive the development flow in a positive manner. Sample applications and solutions to many problems are posted daily for amateur and veteran developers to discover.
What Chromecast does right is the fact that it is open to not only Android but to iOS and Chrome devices as well. Smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops all have the ability of streaming content to a display through Wi-Fi. Customization on the UI front is advantageous to any developer who is looking to incorporate Chromecast into their application because Chromecast does it so well and gives power back to the developer for a tremendous user experience.
Chromecast changes how we show content to friends and family. Anyone who has a device that connects to Wi-Fi and has Chromecast-enabled applications can share their content on a display to anyone around them. A simple solution to an always complex problem.
