What you need to know
- The Stadia firmware update has been hitting Chromecast Ultra for several users.
- If you don't have it already, you can try joining the preview program, rebooting, and power-cycling your Ultra.
- Stadia support should be showing up on versions 1.42.180348 or above.
When Stadia was first announced, it brought the promise of gaming across all screens. However, as the launch date approached, we learned that wasn't exactly true. First, we found out that it would only work on a handful of phones at launch, only Pixel phones.
Then later, it was revealed that it wouldn't even work with all Chromecast Ultras on release day. Instead, you'd be required to have the Chromecast Ultra provided in the Founder's or Premiere Edition — existing Chromecast Ultras would later get an update to enable Stadia.
Well, it appears that update is already rolling out for some, after users on Reddit began getting it to work several days ago. In some cases, the update came completely unprovoked, while in other cases it required a little more effort.
If you don't already have the update on your own Ultra, you can try joining the Preview Program from the settings menu and rebooting or power-cycling to trigger it. This hasn't worked for every user and some cite having to do a few reboots or power-cycles before the update installed.
You'll know you have it when you're on version 1.42.180348 or above and you can get the Stadia controller overlay to pop up on the screen. This can be enabled from the Settings menu under Ambient Mode and by choosing Stadia Controller linking code near the bottom.
Once you get your Chromecast Ultra set up using Stadia, it's worth noting that you should keep an eye on the temperature. Many users have been reporting recently about Stadia causing their Ultra to overheat.
