In response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple is reportedly working on the possibility of replacing AirPlay with other third-party streaming protocols at the system level. This feature can only be deployed in the European Union, similar to third-party app marketplaces.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple could accept AirPlay as the system-level default, and alternative streaming protocols might be able to leverage iOS on a native level, starting with iOS 27. From the Power On newsletter:
Apple, seeking to meet the latest requirements of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, is integrating support for third-party AirPlay streaming alternatives into iOS 27, I’m told. This means that external services, such as Google Cast, can be set by users as the default solution for transmitting videos, photos and audio from an Apple device to a speaker or TV.
Google Cast (formerly Chromecast) is certainly the most popular third-party protocol that would benefit from this feature. Still, this theoretically means that any smart speaker or streaming device manufacturer could offer native integration with iOS, without needing to support AirPlay or rely on Bluetooth.
It should be noted that this feature will most likely only be rolled out in the European Union. The report doesn’t necessarily say it verbatim, but if you’re not in the EU, I wouldn’t have high hopes of getting native Google Cast integration – at least for now.
Personally, most hotels I’ve stayed in recently only support streaming via Google Cast, so it would definitely be nice to have full support for that in iOS.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
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