Chromecast refresh is coming, but don’t get excited just yet

The Chromecast launched 14 months ago, and that’s a lot in the fast changing world of mobile technology, where some manufacturers have adopted release cycles of just six months for their devices.

It now looks that Google is preparing to refresh its popular $35 HDMI dongle, though the modifications may all be under the hood.

As initially spotted by Dave Zatz, via Engadget, Google filled FCC documents for a new version of the Chromecast, but there aren’t user-facing changes visible in the application. That could mean two things – there won’t be any new stuff and the new model is just a technical revision meant to improve performance or cut costs or Google did a good job keeping new features away from the public FCC documents.

Unfortunately, it’s likely the former option, as a Chromecast team member explained in a Reddit AMA session:

“We’re always working to update Chromecast with the latest software and hardware components, but we don’t have any new user-facing features planned for this device.”

And:

“No plans for big announcement on this one. Mostly because it will have the same features as the original and most users won’t notice a difference. Sorry–I can’t say more about this topic.”

So there you have it – Google isn’t in a hurry to update the Chromecast (at least hardware-wise) and that’s understandable – the device is already pretty solid (though faster WiFi would be nice) and Google is busy integrating its software functionality in the Nexus Player and other Android TV devices.

Are there any hardware improvements you’d like to see on the Chromecast?