Back in 2014, Google added a guest mode feature to Chromecast that lets other people Cast to your TV without having to be on your Wi-Fi network. This feature is now being removed.
This feature was only ever for Cast-powered Chromecasts (first, second Ultra, and third-generation), and not the Chromecast with Google TV. When visiting someone’s home, you wouldn’t have to get on their WI-Fi network to Cast from your phone to a screen. Instead, you could just enter a 4-digit PIN shown on the screen saver.
Behind-the-scenes, the technology behind it was quite cool. Guest mode worked by having your “Chromecast [emit] a special Wi-Fi and Bluetooth beacon.” A guest phone would detect said beacon and show the Cast icon in apps even if you were on cellular, or just the guest Wi-Fi network.
Meanwhile, entering the PIN manually was actually the backup method. To make the experience more seamless, a Chromecast would attempt to automatically transfer the PIN via “short, inaudible audio tones” (or ultrasonic pairing). The code reset every 24 hours.
In recent months, Google has removed this feature. A support document says “Guest mode is no longer supported,” and that the only way for guests to to “cast content from their Android or iOS devices [is] by connecting to the host’s Wi-Fi network.”
Additionally, Google is removing the “Guest mode” toggle from system Settings > Google > Devices & sharing > Cast options with version 23.33 of Google Play services: “Allow Google Cast to scan your network to discover nearby Cast-enabled devices.”
The setting to enable it is also gone from Chromecast settings – we checked a second-generation streamer – in the Google Home app.
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