Official Stadia Support Finally Comes to Chromecast With Google TV and Other Android TV Boxes

Illustration for article titled Official Stadia Support Finally Comes to Chromecast With Google TV and Other Android TV Boxes

Photo: Alex Cranz

Stadia always seemed like a perfect fit for Google’s homegrown smart TV OS, and now, more than 18 months after Stadia’s initial debut, Google is finally adding native support for Stadia to a range of Android TV and Google TV devices on June 23.

When Stadia was first released, the best way to stream games from the cloud to your TV was to hook up a Chromecast Ultra, as Google had yet to add official support for Stadia to Android TV devices. (Technically, you could sideload the Stadia app on Android TV devices, but stability was often hit-or-miss). And even after Google released its own first-party streaming TV dongle in the Chromecast with Google TV last year, Google said built-in Stadia support wouldn’t arrive on Google TV until sometime in 2021.

But, in just a couple weeks, it seems Google is finally ready to make good on its promise by adding official support to the Chromecast with Google TV and other Android TV devices on June 23.

According to a new blog post, the list of Android TV devices getting full support Stadia are as follows:

  • The Chromecast with Google TV
  • Hisense® Android Smart TVs (U7G, U8G, U9G)
  • Nvidia® Shield TV
  • Nvidia® Shield TV Pro
  • Onn™ FHD Streaming Stick and UHD Streaming Device
  • Philips® 8215, 8505, and OLED 935/805 Series Android TVs
  • Xiaomi® MIBOX3 and MIBOX4

While this clearly isn’t every single Android TV box on the market, Google says that if the device you have isn’t listed above, you’ll still be able to stream games with Stadia by opting into an experimental support feature. Google also says that starting June 23, all you’ll need to do to get Stadia support is to download the Stadia app from the Google Play Store (and hit the “Continue” button to opt-in if needed).

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As usual, once you get the Stadia app installed, you’ll need to make sure you have a supported gamepad, which can either be an official Stadia controller or one of many compatible third-party Bluetooth controllers.

While it may have taken longer than expected, Google finally adding built-in support for Stadia to Google TV and Android TV devices is a big milestone for Google’s game streaming service as Stadia will soon be available to play on a lot more devices.

Oh, and as an extra bonus, today AT&T announced a new deal that gives both AT&T wireless and AT&T fiber internet customers a free six-month Stadia Pro subscription, with customers who redeem the offer also eligible to buy a discounted Stadia controller/Chromecast Ultra bundle for just $20 (which is down from its normal retail price of $100).