This week’s top stories include: YouTube deprecates its Chromecast app, the release of Android 13 Beta’s most likely final version, an update for Chromecast with Google TV, and more.
The first Chromecast devices had an app-like experience with sign-in and browsing last year, all controlled by a remote on your phone. Unexpectedly, Google has degraded YouTube’s Chromecast experience to what it was before. Google has confirmed that this adjustment was made on purpose.
YouTube casually acknowledged that sign-in is no longer enabled on older Chromecast devices in a tweet on June 16. Users can still use their phones to watch films and manage the session, but Chromecast’s app experience does not support sign-in.
A Google expert also stated that since YouTube Premium customers pay a monthly fee for the ability to watch videos without advertisements, they must utilize the older website and not the more recent app.
Google claims that the release of Android 13 is just a few weeks away, and as part of one last bug-squashing attempt, the firm this week published Android 13 Beta 4 for Pixel phones. Android developers can use the build to make sure their apps continue to work as expected after Android 13 is made generally accessible.
Google has updated the Chromecast with Google TV starting in 2020 in a significantly more cautious manner than it did with the Pixel phones. A fresh update for Chromecast with Google TV extended the dongles’ Android security patch from October 2021 up to May 2022, after it had last been updated in December 2021.
Although owners have been begging for Android 12 in recent months, this upgrade is still better than nothing. The performance of the gadget is improved by updates to the underlying software, but a few user-facing additions have lately debuted separately.
The business has formally described what the previously ambiguous Settings Services app for Pixel phones does in a new Google Support page. The program operates in the background to enable a number of Pixel features, such as the Battery widget, improved notification management, and location-based Rules.
In terms of privacy, Google notes that if collection of Usage andamp; diagnostics under Settings andgt; Privacy is turned on, Settings Services may gather phone or other IDs, app interactions, crash logs, and diagnostics.
Following testing in April, YouTube is now broadly releasing Picture-in-Picture functionality for iOS 15 devices. Picture-in-Picture is still only available to Premium customers in much of the rest of the globe, but it will be free for non-music material in the US.
When it becomes available for your phone or tablet, there will be a Picture-in-Picture setting under Settings andgt; General. YouTube Premium will continue to offer background play, which plays audio alone without any video.
THE OTHER TOP STORIES FROM THIS WEEK ARE AS FOLLOWS: Android, Chrome, the Android operating system, Samsung, videos, and FTC: We use links that generate affiliate revenue. More.
