It’s Time To Ditch The First-Gen Google Chromecast: Here’s Why

Google Chromecast is the popular casting tool that has been around for many years and this week the company has confirmed that it will no longer support the first-gen Chromecast model that came out in 2013.

So if you are still using the first-gen model you will not be getting any more official updates from Google which leaves it vulnerable to attacks and other performance issues. Losing official support also means that Google now wants these people to upgrade to the latest version, which includes both Full HD and 4K options.

The company has shared the update regarding the first-gen Chromecast via its support page back in April this year, where it says, “Support for Chromecast (1st gen) has ended, which means these devices no longer receive software or security updates, and Google does not provide technical support for them. Users may notice a degradation in performance.”

The last update for the Chromecast was released in November last year, which itself was the first update after a dry spell of three years.

We are in 2023 and for a device to be supported for 10 years is quite a feat, considering most phones in the market lose official support by 5 years. Either way, the technology has evolved quite dramatically since the first-gen Chromecast came out, and the new devices even run on a new platform which is called Google TV.

The Chromecast in 2013 was launched for $35 (Rs 2,360 approx back then) and came with measly 512GB RAM and 2GB storage. This Chromecast looked like a hefty key with an HDMI port and microUSB interface to power the device. These days, the Chromecast will cost you around Rs 4,000 in the market and to be fair, it is much more powerful and feature-rich compared to the earlier versions of the Chromecast that Google brought to the market.