When your Chromecast or Chromecast Ultra isn't being used, it can quietly keep you entertained with a screensaver called Ambient Mode. You must be signed into your Google Account to set up and configure Ambient Mode.
Notes:
- Ambient Mode allows Chromecast to access the local time and weather associated with your device's location, as well as photos and personalized content associated with your Google Account.
- All Ambient Mode preferences associated with your Chromecast device will be removed when you perform a factory reset on the device.
- The maximum resolution of Ambient Mode on Chromecast Ultra devices is 1080p.
- You can only access and manage Ambient Mode preferences on Chromecast or Chromecast Ultra from the Google Home app
.
- If you have Chromecast with Google TV, you can change Ambient Mode settings on your TV screen.
Ambient Mode settings
To adjust your Ambient Mode settings:
- Open the Google Home app
.
- Touch and hold your device's tile.
- At the top right corner, tap Settings
.
- Scroll down
tap Ambient Mode.
Google Photos
With Google Photos, you can enjoy the photos that mean the most to you on your TV with Chromecast. To enjoy your personal photos, you need a Google Photos account. Learn how to get started with a Google Photos account.
Note: For more help, explore the Google Photos Help Center.
Add or remove albums
- Open the Google Home app
.
- Touch and hold your device's tile.
- At the top right corner, tap Settings
.
- Scroll down, then tap Ambient Mode
Google Photos.
Note: Ambient Mode doesn't display archived photos, even if they're in a selected album.
Create a Family & Friends album
Note: This feature isn't available in Europe, Illinois, or Texas.
If you have face groups enabled and the Google Photos app installed on your phone, you can create an automatically updating album that contains what Google Photos thinks are the best photos of the people you most care about.
- From the album picker, tap Select Family & Friends.
- Select the faces of the people whose photos you want.
- To confirm album creation, tap Turn on.
A "Family & Friends" album will appear in the album picker, with photos already selected for you. This album will automatically update with new photos of the people you selected whenever they get added to your Google Photos collection.
Select Recent Highlights
Select Favorites
Select an existing private or shared album
Photo curation
Google Photos automatically attempts to select what it thinks are the best photos from your Live Albums and Recent Highlights. From your existing private and shared albums, Google Photos attempts to remove objectively bad photos (blurry, poor exposure, low resolution, near duplicates) but will not otherwise curate the contents of your albums. You can completely turn off curation for private and shared albums by changing the "Personal photo curation" setting to "Live albums only." No curation at all is done on your Favorites.
Note: If photos in your private and shared albums don't appear and you expect them to, turn off curation for those albums by changing the "Personal photo curation" setting to "Live albums only."
By default, your photos will display information like album name, photo date, photo location, and more. If you don't want your devices to display this information, follow these steps:
- Open the Google Home app
.
- Touch and hold your device's tile.
- At the top right, tap Settings
Photo Frame.
- Tap Google Photos, then scroll to "Personal photo data."
- Set "Personal photo data" to Hide.