AirPlay and Google Cast devices could all live in one iPhone menu someday

Just as with Google I/O, the keynote at Apple’sWWDChas become something of a reverse mullet: party up front with business at the back. While we’ve been catching the waves on all the flashy features, there’s at least one bit player in beta you should be watching out for that will let iOS reach devices supportingGoogle Castin addition to AirPlay ones all on the same menu.

9to5Googlepicked up on a new Xcode framework calledDeviceDiscoveryExtensionin beta that will support version 16 of iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS in addition to watchOS 9. Apps will be able to call upon this system-sandboxed service to scout for wireless networked devices including “third-party devices and protocols.” The service will provide a single menu for all of the devices — which sounds like iPhone owners will be able to select AirPlay and Cast devices to broadcast media to in one place.

However, showing this theoretical unified menu would be incumbent upon the app supporting the Google Cast protocol in the first place. Currently, iOS apps that do support Cast and AirPlay will have a dedicated button and device menu for each standard or show only one button and nest the other standard’s device menu within its own. 9to5 also reports that Google will need to release a new API for app developers to integrate.

Getting the locked-in AirPlay protocol to play nice with Android is more of a challenge. We highlighted theAirMusicapp last year which lets rooted Android 10 or later devices make the connection. But root access has always been a niche desire and it’s only been shrinking as Google has taken chains and lockpads to the mainstream Android experience.

The AirPlay video, AirPlay audio, iOS, and Google Cast logos