Are you still using the first Chromecast? Then it’s time for an upgrade

Bye, dear Chromecast 1! (Source: adobe.stock/cristianstorto)

Nowadays, almost every peripheral for the home television has smart features that we use to call up apps and stream films. That was not the case in 2013.

Google Chromecast was the first dongle for the TV and the company has now quietly buried the original, as reported by 9to5Google and The Verge.

First generation Chromecast is no longer supported

As Google has quietly announced, the original Chromecast will no longer be supported. The company has published a corresponding notice on several of its support pages:

This step comes as no surprise, given that Chromecasts have been supported for more than ten years.

The first-generation Chromecasts were fairly poor in features compared to today’s smart peripherals. With the dongle connected, you could only stream videos and pictures from your cell phone to the TV.

Today’s televisions can connect the mobile phone to the TV natively. We show how:

Should you switch?

Of course, if any of you still have a first-generation Chromecast connected to your TV, you can still use it. However, there will be no more updates.

It is therefore worth switching to the current version, which of course will continue to be updated by Google.

After around ten years, Google is discontinuing support for the first-generation Chromecast and retiring the streaming dongle. Was that long overdue? Would you have even noticed that without our news? Are any of you still using a correspondingly old Chromecast? Please leave your answers in the comments.