Google will soon let Android users switch audio between cast devices

In the last few years, Google has been constantly improving and adding several new features to Android’s notification tray. With Android 11, the tech giant added a dedicated space in the notification panel to control media playback.
Soon after, the notification panel media playback controller received a new feature that let users easily switch the audio to whatever device they want to play their media on. But for years, users only have had the option to only switch between the speaker and connected Bluetooth devices.
But according to a blog post Mishaal Rehman on Esper, with the latest release of the Google Cast SDK, things might soon change on devices running Android 13. This means users might soon be able to switch from their Bluetooth earphones to a smart device that supports Google’s Cast functionality.

For example, if you are lening on your phone and want to switch the audio to say, your TV, you might be able to do it with a single tap and without having to unlock your phone.
In case you are unaware, Android TVs, smart speakers and smart displays already supported Google Cast. Google had introduced the feature with Android 11, but for some reason, Android developers have apparently disabled the feature changing a flag in Google Play Services.
When enabled, the feature adds a radio button to all cast devices. Clicking on the button will add the cast device to the exing media session and allow you to route your phone’s audio. But it looks like the feature is in beta and currently buggy at best.
Moreover, app developers interested in adding support for local-to-remote, remote-to-remote and remote-to-local media transfers will have to update their apps and add support for the updated Google Cast SDK. And while the feature is currently available to a handful of developers, Google might make it publicly available in the near future.