Chromecast can beam videos from an Android Chrome browser to a big TV

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Google hasn't contributed to the Chromecast apps list since it first launched the inexpensive streaming device in the US, but it has a Chrome browser extension for Android in the pipe.

Chromecast Beta for Android 34 added the ability to beam videos from the mobile browser to a TV with a little tinkering, discovered Android Police.

The hidden functionality is enabled by typing chrome://flags/#enable-cast into the smartphone and tablet browser's URL bar and it negates the need to shift to a standalone app like YouTube.

That's convenient, but so far it only works best in YouTube. Other HTML5 sites have proven that this beta feature is not ready to be enabled by default.

There still isn't an official way to mirror an entire Chrome mobile browser to a large TV - that's still reserved for the computer-only Chrome browser extension - but this is a good first step.

Chromecast in the UK this month?

Of course, none of these new features benefit consumers in the UK or Australia because Chromecast hasn't been released outside of the US where it launched seven months ago.

The Chromecast UK release date was rumored to be sometime this month, but Google has denied that such a release date exists for its $35 (about £21, AU$39) device.

The company might be more eager now considering a new Apple TV is reportedly right the corner as is an equally unconfirmed Android-based Amazon set-top box.

• Now it we could only get Chromecast support for Google Glass