Ever since the Chromecast was announced, I have been waiting for it to support more apps so I can use it to smarten up my TV. I don’t live in the USA where most of the supported streaming services are available, and I like to enjoy my own media, so the first batch of Chromecast apps was of little use to me.
Thankfully, the device’s SDK was released a couple of weeks ago and we have started to see the results, with several apps adding a Chromecast functionality. A few of these apps use direct sharing between your Android phone or tablet and the Chromecast, without the need to upload and download the data to any online services. It’s a faster, more convenient way of quickly enjoying your media on your television set. Here are four of them.
Tip: When sending local files to the Chromecast, all the decoding happens on the device and not on your phone. Keep that in mind, because even though your phone might be able to handle .avi and .flac, you can’t enjoy these files on the Chromecast. For a list of supported formats, please check this list first.
Dayframe
Dayframe impressed me from the first time I tried it because it is simply very, very fast compared to all the other apps on this list. It’s a photo gallery application, and although there are many bells and whistles to it — including social network integration — it can be only used to share the images on your phone to the Chromecast. Open the side menu, click on Photo Gallery, pick the folders you want to show, and you’re set. Now the app’s main screen will display all your photos and you’ll be able to manually select any photo, start a slideshow, set up a shuffle mode and more.
Dayframe has a lot of options, but remains clean and easy to use.
Download: Dayframe (Chromecast Photos)
Avia Media Player
Despite an interface that won’t win any awards, Avia manages to be one of the best solutions on this list, since it handles photos, videos and music. The app lets you browse your content by folders, playlists or date. From my personal experience, I have found that although it stutters while playing certain file types — like .mkv — it still manages to send them and play them smoothly on the Chromecast. That’s again due to the fact that the decoding is happening on the Chromecast itself.
Avia won’t win your heart with its UI, but works fairly well as an all-in-one solution.
Download: Avia Media Player
AllCast
Koush’s AllCast got a lot of publicity for being the first non-Google-approved app to send local files to the Chromecast then becoming useless with Google updating the device’s firmware to patch it up. That functionality is now back in the app, thanks to the official SDK support. Just like Avia, AllCast will also handle photos, videos and music, but I have found it to be rather slow by comparison. It also tends to take a lot more time than Dayframe to load images, and doesn’t let you swipe between photos, instead forcing you to manually select every image you want to view. That adds a friction layer to the experience that you don’t want — you’re trying to focus on the TV and not on the phone!
AllCast handles different types of media, but lacks easy swiping between images.
Download: AllCast
RealPlayer Cloud
RealPlayer Cloud is the only app on this list that has Chromecast support while remaining completely free and without any in-app purchases. It only handles video though, and although its title would have you believe you should upload media to their Cloud service first before you view it, there’s a direct sharing option baked in. But it remains erratic at best and seems to work with far less video codecs and formats than Avia. The price and cleaner UI work in its favor so you might want to try it first to see if it suits your needs before breaking the piggy jar and paying for the other apps.
Despite the “cloud” in its name, Real Player Cloud can play local content too.
Download: RealPlayer Cloud
Which apps do you use to send your media to the Chromecast? Are there any that we missed in this list?
