Chromecast has to be negotiated through the Google cloud service, since Google designed this from day one to lock Chromecast down. Chromecast is largely an anti

Chromecast has to be negotiated through the Google cloud service, since Google designed this from day one to lock Chromecast down. Chromecast is largely an anti-feature given how Google designed it to be lock-in. What's stupid is Android TV means I can run any app I want, and they can't stop me, so Chromecast ends up being a kind of idiotic solution that never quite finished its search of a problem. As in, I can use Steam Link or Moonlight to become a thin client of a real computer, I can Plex my entire (legal) library, or use any cloud service natively from the device. All the things I ever really wanted to Chromecast felt like it was a third class citizen compared to the Android TV experience; and I just mean the purely playback part of it, not the client UI part (which Chromecast doesn't, and isn't meant to, have).