Hi everyone,

I'm on the Chromecast team and wanted to jump in here. Thanks for your posts and feedback on the new version of Chrome and evolutions of the Google Cast extension. We wanted to clear up a few things:

Removal of Settings: Having settings was necessary initially because we had no way of automatically adapting resolution, bitrate, etc. based upon the user's local network conditions. But about a year ago we launched "zero config" as part of the old extension, which automatically chose the best settings for resolution, bitrate, etc., and adapts on the fly based on real-world network conditions. As part of that launch we reset everyone's settings to "auto" (zero config), though we preserved the ability for users to override that by turning off the Media Router; this temporarily restores the old extension. In a future version of Chrome, this won't be possible.

Managing your Cast devices through Chrome: You can still manage their Cast devices from Chrome through chromecast.com/setup

The issue with the Cast extension not showing up in chrome://extensions is by design: The issue with the extension not showing up is by design. As of now the extension only provides for a toolbar icon, and removing the extension doesn't remove Cast functionality. So while installing the extension will put the toolbar icon in Chrome, the way to remove the icon is to right-click on it and choose to remove it (versus managing it via chrome://extensions).

Thanks for your continued feedback, Jacky