The $35 Chromecast Audio is the best device for streaming audio to your speakers. It's even better than speakers with built-in Bluetooth because you can make calls or play videos on your phone without affecting the stream. You have to get familiar with it's quirks, but as long as I've had an Android phone to use with it I've never had a problem.
Since switching to an iPhone 6s Plus, however, I've encountered a host of issues.
My favorite streaming apps — Spotify, Pocket Casts, and NPR One — struggle to get a stream started. They usually only successfully stream over the speakers after the fifth or sixth attempt. Sometimes I'll click on a new stream and it will start playing over the iPhone's speakers while the previous one continues over the Chromecast. Podcasts I've played on the Chromecast don't show up as "listened to" in my iOS app. And there's no way to adjust the Chromecast volume without opening the app. (On Android you could do it in the streaming app.)
Last night presented a particularly unusual manifestation of these issues. At around 10 p.m. I got in bed and started an NPR One stream to catch up on the day's news. (NPR One is an app for playing a personalized NPR feed.) The app has a built-in sleep timer which I set for 90 minutes — it should have shut itself off after that.
But it didn't, at least on the Chromecast. When I woke up eight hours later the app showed a paused stream but the Chromecast was still going, playing a particularly unsettling episode of "Snap Judgment." This resulted in a pretty strange dream, I might add.
On a certain level this is unsurprising. Google and Apple aren't known for playing nice together, ever since Google released Android in 2008 and Apple cofounder Steve Jobs swore he'd spend"every penny in Apple's bank... to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product." But the companies still do work together quite often, and it's surprising how badly they did when it came to making iPhones work with Chromecast Audio.
A lot of the problem seems to lie with app developers, who may not mature their software to the same degree on iOS as they do on Android.
The Chromecast folks are marketing a great piece of hardware, but it's tough to see its greatness when you're forced to use glitchy, unreliable software.
As an iPhone user and Chromecast Audio enthusiast, here's hoping the situation improves soon.
Update: A Google spokesperson sent us this statement:
"We're constantly working with hundreds of developers to ensure Chromecast Audio users get the best experience across their Android and iOS apps. We are currently working with the app developers and looking into a fix. "
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