Your Pixel Tablet just stole one of the Apple HomePod's best tricks

24 Oct 2024, 19:11 by Karandeep Singh Oberoi · Android Police

Key Takeaways

Google announced 'Hold close to cast' at CES earlier this year, and indicated that it will be available soon after rolling out the October Pixel Feature Drop.
The feature is rolling out now to all UWB supported Pixel devices.
Hold close to cast allows bidirectional audio transfer between your Pixel Phone and Pixel Tablet, simply by bringing the two devices close to each other.

Android 15 brought along a Pixel Feature Drop in tow, and while it featured a lot of new functionality for mobile devices, Pixel Tablets weren't overlooked. The large-screen device is privy to the new Pixel Weather app, complete with Pollen Data Block in certain countries, Panel Screensaver for smart home controls, new clock screensavers, cross-device notification dismissals, and more.

Most of the features announced as part of the Feature Drop made their way to their respective devices, while some were expected to arrive soon, including this one handy trick that Apple's HomePod users have enjoyed for a while now.

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Hand off, as Apple likes to call it, is a feature that essentially allows users with iPhones or iPads to bring their device close to their HomePod to transfer audio over to it. It is essentially an easy way to cast music to the smart speaker if you're already in close vicinity of it. It works the other way around too, allowing you to transfer over audio playing on the HomePod to your iPhone or iPad.

As part of the Pixel Feature Drop on October 15, Google said that an equivalent of Hand off will be "Coming in the next few weeks." Lo and behold, less than 10 days in, the feature has begun rolling out to Pixel devices that support UWB, with the Pixel Tablet being the designated device to cast to.

Hold close to cast is currently limited to YouTube Music and Spotify

The Pixel Tablet is learning one of Apple HomePod's coolest tricks

Tap to Cast will transfer music streams from phone to tablet when your devices are near each other

The functionality, aptly named Hold close to cast, was first revealed at CES 2024. It is rolling out now on the Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel Fold, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and the Pixel Tablet, as spotted by 9to5Google.

Similar to Apple's iteration of the feature, Google's implementation is bidirectional too, which means audio playing on a Pixel Tablet can also be transferred over to a supported Pixel device simply by bringing the two devices close to each other. It's worth noting that for the feature to work, both the Pixel smartphone and the Pixel Tablet must be on the same private Wi-Fi network. Also worth noting is that if you're playing audio from a paywalled source, both devices must be logged-in to it.

According to Google's last statement about the feature, only YouTube Music and Spotify are currently supported. It is unclear if support for other popular music streaming services like Amazon Music, SoundCloud, and Deezer is in the pipeline.

The functionality is rolling out as part of Google Play Services version 24.42.32. To check if Hold close to cast has rolled out to you, head to Settings → Google → All Services → Cast option. If available, you'll see a new Holds close to cast setting. If not, the page will only surface with a Media control notifications toggle.

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