Google Launches New WiFi-Less Guest Mode For Chromecast

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Google Chromecast users who will be entertaining friends and family over the holidays can now allow their Android smartphone-owning guests to operate the streaming video device without first having to connect to WiFi.
According to Engadget’s Timothy J. Seppala, the Mountain View, California-based tech giant launched ultrasonic pairing (also known as Guest Mode) on Wednesday. Once the Chromecast device is connected to a nearby Android device, it can be used to control the television set.
“With the new guest mode feature, anyone with an Android device can cast to your TV as long as they’re in the same room,” Google product manager Jagjit Chawla explained Thursday in a post to the company’s Chrome blog. “This update is rolling out starting today. Just make sure your Chromecast app is up to date on your Android phone or tablet.”
To set up ultrasonic pairing for a Chromecast device, users need to open the Chromecast app on their Android phone or tablet and select “Devices” from the navigation drawer, Chawla explained. Next, they need to choose their Chromecast device, then tap the “Guest Mode” setting and then turn the slider to the “on” position.
Currently, the service is limited to Android mobile devices, Seppala said. The reason, Chawla explained to him, is that iOS does not have an API that allows users to scan for a list of nearby WiFi access points. As such, Google decided to release Guest mode on their own operating system, gather feedback and improving the service before ultimately releasing it for iPad and iPhone sometime in the foreseeable future.
CNET’s Scott Webster said that Guest Mode, which was first demonstrated this summer at Google I/O, uses a PIN number to allow users to access the HDMI streaming media device. However, for the service to work, the device must run Android 4.3 or above.
Activating Guest Mode causes Chromecast to activate a special WiFi beacon that lets the smartphone and tablet users’ devices known that a Cast-ready TV is available, explained Adriana Lee of the website readwrite. Those devices will sense the Chromecast once they hit the cast button, and the link-up process will begin.
“The Chromecast will first try to link up to a guest phone using inaudible sounds to transmit a four-digit PIN code, using the ultrasound technology Google announced at its Google I/O developers conference last June,” Lee said. “If the ultrasonic pairing doesn’t work for some reason, your guest can type in that four-digit PIN.”
“Chromecast… will display the code on your TV screen in your Chromecast backdrop, and will also pop it up on your phone in the Chromecast app,” she added. “Once your guests are all paired, you’re off watching those insanely cute animal videos…  Beats digging up and typing in a long hexadecimal string of characters.”
Lee also notes that Chromecast randomly generates the 4-digit PIN code every 24 hours or whenever it reboots (whichever comes first), and cautions that it does not work with apps that stream music or video stored on a tablet or smartphone (even if they use Google Cast). She also said that some younger users may hear some buzzing due to the ultrasonic technology’s use of high-frequency sounds that are largely undetectable to most people.
“Since Google first announced ultrasonic pairing, some users have asked me if the high-frequency ultrasounds will drive their pets nuts. Google hasn’t officially addressed this concern, but insiders tell me that animals will be fine,” she added. “However, the real test of new features always comes when the public gets their hands on them and reports back in. So we’ll keep our ears perked for any canine or feline discomfort, now that Guest Mode is live.”