Well, at least they aren’t outright throwing the functionality in the trash.
Google, stop fucking with your own shit.
I’ve heard it’s because creating/reforming things rather than maintaining them is more valued at Google with their current company culture.
Exactly. The Google culture nowadays is a lot of climbers cynically trying to sell new ideas and then abandoning them once they get promo. It didn’t always used to be like that.
A friend who worked at Meta said pretty concisely, “You get rewarded for coming up with something new, not improving something old.”
Proving once again that it’s usually management that tanks a company… Yet they get the golden parachutes
Their company culture sounds like shit. They should be more like Valve. Make a great thing and then forget it exists until it sucks just because it’s too old.
It’s pretty common across most orgs really. Google just seems to have perfected it. Which might actually mean they’ll kill it soon!
Google: “Thanks for your feedback, we hear you loud in clear. In response, we’ve launched 5 new messenger apps (only 3 available in your region), changed the names and branding of 3 other messengers, and completely discontinued 8 other messenger apps. We hope you enjoy playing our little game of Three Card Monty trying to figure out which messenger actually works now.”
My favorite thing about this is I was using Hangouts for SMS messaging for like two years after they said they’d stop supporting it. I don’t know if I just got lucky and someone forgot to turn off a server somewhere or what, but even their inconsistency is inconsistent.
There’s something to be said about brand recognition, and Google just doesn’t listen.
Well, at least they aren’t outright throwing the functionality in the trash.
Yet
Annnnnnd it’s gone. Next please.
Crazy to think that even the newest Pixels can’t cast to any device unless you specifically have Chromecast support, which most of the TVs don’t. I can cast my Samsung or iPhone just fine tho
Gemini soon to be rebranded Allo Assistant All Access Chat
… Plus
I’m not defending Google but I think the change is just an admission that the old “Chromecast” branding is outdated. It wouldn’t surprise me if less than 5% of users still regularly cast from a desktop browser.
I would do it more often, if firefox would fucking finally add it into the browser.
And no, that weird plugin doesn’t count. It’s buggy as hell
It’s literally the only reason I have chrome installed
Pretty sure they can’t bundle it. AFAIK the libraries required for it ship with Chrome / Android and it’s not an open standard. The hacky weird workarounds are people brute forcing it.
How? It’s closed sourced tech. Not like Firefox can just add it, they would have to pay Google for it (and that’s assuming google would license Firefox for this and remove a competitive advantage from Chrome Browser)
Give it time.
At least they’re not killing the protocol.
Yet.
They already killed MiraCast for their Embrance, Extend, Extinguish Chromecast…
