Google had made good announcements for the Chromecast with Google TV for the connection with Nest speakers, which remained unfulfilled even more than a year later. Amazon, on the other hand, shows how to combine smart TV and smart speakers.
Google introduced the Chromecast with Google TV well more than a year ago and that’s why the grace period is slowly over in our eyes. There has to be criticism because Google is apparently asleep. Briefly brought in: Google TV is the new TV interface, which is still based on the well-known Android TV OS. It is also the first Chromecast with such extensive software and can therefore be used independently. But there is a lack of functions here and there.
The performance of the TV dongle has been criticized from the very beginning. Google saved on the internal hardware. Nevertheless, the latest Chromecast costs a whopping 69 euros. But well, you could improve with software updates. Basically, that is what has been done. However, announced features are still missing. Amazon, with which Google actually wants to compete, is doing a lot better in this area.
Nothing is happening in the audio sector
To this day it is not possible for the Chromecast to output its sound to Nest speakers. Or rather, to date, this has only been possible via a Bluetooth connection and therefore with a delay. The Fire TV platform can always automatically sync the sound with echo speakers if desired. Which is pretty cool. I’ve been waiting for this for Nest Audio for over a year. But despite the announcement in November 2020, Google does not deliver anything.
And only a few weeks ago there was the next blow. Amazon has introduced Fire TV 4K Max that it can tap all sound sources of television via HDMI-ARC (return channel) and pass them on to an echo loudspeaker. Since then, I’ve been seriously considering converting to Fire TV and Echo again.
Delays also with other announcements
And we haven’t even talked about other functions that are still a long time coming. Google TV still doesn’t support profiles and the new ambient mode seems to be only available in the US for no reason. Anyway, I’m pretty annoyed.