Google Chromecast Home Screen to Have Weather and User Photo

Google's Chromecast wireless video streaming dongle will reportedly get home screen enhancements with weather forecast, according to a new disclosure.

Google Chromecast home screen, which currently shows timing with Chromecast wallpaper in the background, is expected to get the new look soon.

This information comes from a Reddit user named asjmcguire. Accoding to the revelation, while browsing the HTML source code, the user has found multiple references to weather forecast and pngs in the HTML source of Chromecast home screen that should appear for each weather condition.

The HTML source hints the home screen of the Chromecast is expected to show the weather natively and one-day forecast according to users' current location.

The HTML code also contains icons being used to display the weather, which looks like the photo below.

Besides, the javascript code that is being used to render the Chromecast home screen suggest that Google is experimenting with several topics to be displayed at the home screen. This includes a reference of personal photos.

A Google spokesperson, when asked about the company's plans on adding weather to Chromecast, has replied saying, "We're always experimenting with new features, but have nothing new to announce," to Gigaom.

Earlier in February this year, Google launched the Google Cast Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers allowing them to build support for Chromecast into their apps on Android, iOS and the Chrome operating system.

Following this, developers have been experimenting with adding weather forecast and other related information to the Chromecast. Below is the note by Reddit users about Chromecast home screen.

Weather coming to Chromecast homescreen
Hi, Just been browsing the source code for (what I believe is) the current version of the Chromecast homescreen. https://clients3.google.com/cast/chromecast/home/v/c9541b08 I noticed in the code a lot of references to weather and pngs that should appear for each weather conditon, the pngs currently appear to be blank - like https://www.gstatic.com/chromecast/home/weather/freezing.png but presumably this means we could at some stage get the weather natively on the screen. As for the Javascript for the ChomecastSetup - we get this code - var Hb=function(a){var b=H(a,6),c=2==b||3==b||4==b,b={pictureUrl:E(a,1),pictureTitle:H(a,3),pictureAuthor:H(a,2),pictureDescription:H(a,4),topicType:b,isCuratedPhoto:1==b,isWeather:c};c&&(a=H(a,7),c=H(a,3),angular.extend(b,{localityName:H(a,1),currentWeatherCondition:H(a,2),tempF:c,isFreezing:39>=c&&!H(a,6),isCold:39<c&&56>=c&&!H(a,6),isCool:56<c&&67>=c&&!H(a,6),isMild:67<c&&77>=c&&!H(a,6),isHot:77<c&&!H(a,6),isRaining:H(a,5),isSnowing:H(a,6),isSunny:H(a,4)}));return b}; which as well as mentioning weather, also mentions photo descriptions and locations of photos!