Google is making it even easier to beam media content to your TV by baking a new ‘Cast’ option into Chrome.

Up to now, if you wanted to cast content from your computer to your Chromecast-equipped TV, you needed to download a Chrome extension. As of Chrome 51, such an extension won’t be necessary.

As 9to5Google points out, Chrome 51 includes a ‘Cast’ option within the drop-down settings menu. You can also access it through right clicking in a tab. This will then cast the current tab to the appropriate TV or monitor.

Google has also removed the ability to tweak settings for resolution, bitrate, and quality when casting a tab, so Chrome itself will control such parameters automatically.

Chrome 51 is now available as a stable version, and the Cast option should be rolling out to users now. This casting ability will also be baked into Chrome OS.



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Another related function that appears to be coming in Chrome 52 (which is available in the beta channel) is the ability to cast to Hangouts, Google’s messaging service. It will enable you to push Chrome tabs to your contacts within an open video Hangout, which could be extremely useful for remote meetings and the like.

The Cast to Hangouts feature will also peek into your calendar to find such scheduled Hangout meetings to make quick sharing easier.

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Intriguingly, Google’s related support page also lists ‘cloud services’ as casting options, which suggests it has wider plans in the field.