How to display Google Drive presentations with Chromecast

Chromecast has been updated to display Google Apps presentations. Is improved Google Apps support on the way?

The new feature, which allows Google Apps users to display presentations on a TV or projector via Chromecast, has been available to a select few for a while, but now the option is available to all.

To show your presentation on Chromecast you need to be using the Chrome browser and have the Chromecast extension installed.

Click the Present button at the top right of any presentation and you will have a new Present on another device option. Assuming you are connected to a network with an active device your Chromecast will appear in this list.

The move demonstrates Google’s intention to expand the use of Chromecast to more than just Netflix movies, and suggests that we may see an enterprise version of the device in the near future.

But there is still one reason you won’t want to use Chromecast in your school just yet: there is no way to password protect access to the Chromecast — anyone connected to the same WiFi network as the Chromecast can take control and display anything they wish. For schools this is a big problem.

Chromecast is still a consumer device. Before it can be considered for use on large school networks we need a way to manage devices in bulk. I would love to see Google provide Chromecast management features in the Google Apps Control Panel. Let me enrol my Chromecasts in Google Apps, in the same way I can Chromebooks or Cloud Printers, and let me manage access by user group. We also need that ever elusive screen mirroring that Google keeps hinting is on the way but has so far not materialised.

I’m hugely exciting about Chromecast’s potential, let’s just hope Google can continue to develop the device in exciting new ways. How do you see Chromecast being used in your school?