Google have released the Google Cast SDK to the wider development community for developing and publishing Chromecast compatible apps.
The public SDK comes after the Chromecast was first released back in July with a developer preview of an SDK available for developers with whitelisted applications.
The Google Cast SDK can now be used by the third-party development community to work on Chromecast compatibility in their mobile and web apps.
For media streaming applications, the Chromecast has a default HTML5 media player that can be styled with CSS and branded for your app. Custom media players can also be developed with support for the MPEG-DASH, HLS, and Microsoft Smooth Streaming protocols that should cover a large number of use cases.
Google have also made a number of sample apps for iOS, Android, and Chrome available on GitHub to help developers get started with the new APIs available.
Mobile app developers can use the Sender APIs for Android and iOS. iOS developers can download the library directly from Google whilst Android developers should include the Google Play services 4.2 SDK in their projects. Google have begun rolling out the new Google Play services to devices, so Android developers can expect an update to the SDK to be available soon.
If you’re a web developer, Google provides a JavaScript file to include in your web app to hook into the Chromecast extension.
It’s been a long time coming, but with a number of major players – including HBO, Pandora, Hulu, and Netflix – on board, it’s time to see what the third-party community can bring to Google’s popular content streaming device.
- Source: Google Developers Blog