How To Cast A Chrome App To Chromecast

Chrome lets you save websites as apps. The Chrome Web Store also features an entire Apps category. These apps run as stand alone Chrome windows. You can pin them to the Taskbar and the Start Menu in Windows for faster access but they come with some restrictions. A Chrome web app that runs in its own dedicated window doesn’t support the Chrome toolbar. You can’t use any of your installed extensions inside the app unless the extension can be used from the right-click context menu. The only other alternative is to run the app as a tab in Chrome but that more or less defeats the purpose of the app. With these restrictions, you can’t cast a Chrome app to the Chromecast using the official extension. The extension that resides in the toolbar can’t be accessed from the stand alone window interface. The good news is that as of Chrome version 51, native support for the Chromecast has been added making it possible for you to cast a Chrome app to your Chromecast. Here’s what you need to do.

Enable Media Router Flag

Chrome version 51 (and above) natively support casting to the Chromecast which means you no longer need to rely on the official extension. The native cast option isn’t enabled by default so if you want to use it, you need to enable the ‘Media Router’ flag.

To do so, go to Chrome://Flags. Look for the ‘Media Router’ flag and set its value to ‘Enabled’. Use the restart button at the very bottom of the flags page to restart Chrome.

Casting To Chromecast

Open the Chrome app and right-click inside the window. Do not click on a web element. Make sure you’re clicking on a blank area as the options in the context menu will not include ‘Cast’ if you click on an image or a link.

From the context menu, select ‘Cast’. A pop-up menu will appear asking you to select your Chromecast device and listing all the Chromecast devices it has found on your network. Select the right one to start casting. The pop-up will feature volume controls.

Native Chromecast support in Chrome doesn’t render the extension redundant. You still need it if you want to restart the Chromecast, or change any other configurable settings.