Fresh off announcing its latest home entertainment range, LG announced some great news on a couple of fronts, one of them being built-in Chromecast support at long last in its TV models. The brand’s new webOS 24 platform adds several changes, with platform-agnostic casting a big one.
Not only are many of this year’s TVs cheaper, but it’ll also be much easier for the legions of Android users to stream content from mobile devices to the big screen. For a while now, Australian LG TVs have supported Apple’s AirPlay technology, but not the Android equivalent.
It’s rare for a major TV brand to support both AirPlay and Chromecast, so LG’s move makes its hardware more platform-agnostic. Up to this point, anyone with an Android phone had to make do with workarounds, like a separate app or a streaming device like Amazon’s Fire TV Stick. Now, casting a video from your phone or tablet is far simpler.
Even older LG TV models get Chromecast now
But wait, there’s more: you don’t even need the latest LG TV to get Chromecast functionality. Various 2022 and 2023 TVs from LG will also get the feature via a retroactive update.
As part of LG’s home entertainment launch, the company revealed its webOS Re:New program, promising up to five years of operating system upgrades. Like buying a phone and receiving ongoing major OS and security updates, buying a TV now means you won’t miss out on a software feature introduced next year.
OLED TVs from 2022 and most of 2023’s LG TV range are included in the update program, which includes Chromecast support. webOS 24 also refreshes the user experience, decluttering the home screen and making it easier to find what you want.
You can group apps into quick-access cards by categories like sports, music, and gaming. For those who use TVs as an office display, it’s possible to sort work-related apps, like screen mirroring, into one of these cards, helping keep work and play separate.
And for families, webOS 24 supports up to 10 user profiles. Each profile receives personalised content suggestions, and you can customise what each user sees. So, the resident sports nut can have Kayo front and centre, while the young’uns get easy access to ABC iView for Bluey. And by young’uns, I also refer to those who are young at heart.
Chromecast coming to new and old LG TV models is a positive step forward for the industry, where open platforms and user choice matter more than ever. It’s also great to see further software update support coming to the TV market. You shouldn’t have to miss out on a software improvement just because you bought several months too early. Fortunately, it seems LG had the same idea.
