Chromecast will use ultrasonic sounds to pair your TV with your friend’s phones

Google’s Chromecast team has found an interesting way to pair Chromecast streaming sticks with mobile devices that are not on the same Wi-Fi network.

Pairing is done through inaudible, ultrasonic sounds, which should make sure that your neighbor won’t suddenly rickroll your TV screen.

Chromecast Engineering Manager John Affaki said that the goal was to make the social use of Chromecast in the living room easier.

Google’s YouTube app already allows users to build collaborative queues for on-the-fly YouTube parties, and Affaki said that the support for these kinds of queues will be added to the Chromecast software developer’s kit to bring it to other apps as well. However, the challenge is that users need to be on the same Wi-Fi network, and sharing Wi-Fi passwords can be cumbersome.

“The initial step of getting on the same Wi-Fi network can be really complicated,” said Affaki.