What you need to know
- Google has quietly rolled out a new casting feature for the YouTube Music app.
- The app will suggest which devices to cast your music to based on your habits, such as casting history.
- The feature appears to be available on iOS and Android phones.
YouTube Music subscribers are noticing a new feature appear on the app over the past week or so, which is meant to streamline the casting selection process.
ChromeUnboxed recently spotted the feature, which appears in the app when you try to cast something on YouTube Music. Now, in addition to the standard list of devices available to cast to, there's a new section above that displays "Suggested" devices.
The section shows the names of devices in chips that the app thinks you may want to cast to. On Wednesday, a Google spokesperson told The Verge that the suggestions are "based upon usage, history, and the type of device."
In my usage, this appears to be pretty accurate, with YouTube Music usually suggesting devices I've most recently cast music to in two different homes. However, if you don't like a suggestion, you can always hit the "X" to dismiss it.
The feature appears to be available for YouTube Music on iOS and the best Android phones. It's a handy feature for those of you with plenty of casting devices around the house and should potentially streamline the selection process.
That said, it would be much more helpful if the feature could suggest devices based on their proximity to me. When working, I want music cast to the Nest Mini on my desk, which makes it unhelpful when it suggests casting to the speaker in my bathroom on the other end of my apartment.
It's currently unclear if the new "Suggested" devices section will be available on desktop versions of YouTube Music. It also doesn't appear to be available on the standard YouTube app.
