Google flip flops on Google Cast/Chromecast branding again

"Chromecast Built-In" branding will come to third-party devices.

The Chromecast is Google's most popular hardware product, but the company has never really been sure what to call it. After launching a scheme to rename much of the Chromecast ecosystem to "Google Cast" earlier this year, Google seems to be flip-flopping on the branding and going back to "Chromecast" again.

"Google Cast" has long been the name of the Chromecast APIs for developers. Google brought the "Google Cast" name to consumer devices this March as a branding for OEMs that integrate Google Cast technology into their products. In a blog post, Google said the new branding would "better reflect that Google Cast technology is now supported across a wide range of devices such as Chromecast, TVs, displays, and speakers."

Eight months later, Google has changed its mind, and the new name for third parties is "Chromecast built-in."

Chromecast's Twitter presence has changed its name from "Google Cast" to "Chromecast," and the "Google Cast" website (still called "Google Cast!") gives up altogether and goes with dual-branding: "Google Cast—also known as Chromecast built-in—is a technology that lets you cast your favorite entertainment and apps from your phone, tablet or laptop right to your TV or speakers."

But wait, there's more! Chromecast branding gets even more complicated when you realize that the "Chromecast" app—mandatory for device setup and useful for browsing content—isn't called "Chromecast" anymore. The app used the name "Chromecast" for most of its life and, with the third-party device launch, was renamed "Google Cast." Just last month the Chromecast setup app was renamed again to "Google Home" to coincide with the launch of the Google Home voice appliance. Will it change names again soon?

The name "Chromecast" doesn't even make a ton of sense. The product shares a name with the Google Chrome Web browser, which most customers will associate with "a thing that loads Web pages"—that's technically possible on the Chromecast, but that doesn't really align with the primary purpose of playing media. The name also creates a misconception that the Chromecast only receives content from a Chrome Web browser—it also works with apps on Android, iOS, Firefox, and anything else that wants to implement the Google Cast/Chromecast APIs.

The Chromecast doesn't even seem to have that much Chrome technology in it. When hackers over at Exploitee.rs rooted the Chromecast, they concluded the OS was "more Android than Chrome OS," despite Google's original assurances that the device was "based on Chrome OS."

So to recap, we have:

• Chromecast: The name for the HDMI media dongle, also the name for any device with the media receiving technology built in (Chromecast built-in).

• Google Home: The name of the Chromecast setup app, also the name for Google's voice assistant hardware.

• Google Cast: The name of the developer API, also the name of the Chromecast website. Formerly the name for third-party devices with the media receiving technology. Formerly the name of the setup app.

Google (don't you mean Alphabet?) branding is the best.