Today I learned you can surf YouTube on old Chromecasts with a hidden phone remote

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Did you know that you can scroll through the entire YouTube app on your older Chromecast?

If you hit the Cast button a second time, you will be able to find a button labeled Remote. You get a full D-pad, a voice search button, and a back button to back out of the video and access a full YouTube interface after that.

Until the 2020 version of the Chromecast with Google TV added a physical remote, the only way to control it was from your phone.

But apparently, that has changed. The hidden remote on the third-gen Chromecast is being rolled out to older versions of the device, according to reports from 9to5Google and other sites. If you bought the Ultra in the Stadia sale, you will get a bonus.

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The Wayback Machine tells me that the feature was added to the support page on October 5th, but I don't know if that's true.

The phone remote is laggy compared to using a dedicated remote, but it works well on my Chromecast Ultra. I would probably use it a lot if I valued the videos on the internet more. I don't understand why it keeps suggesting videos I've already watched. I wish it was available in the service, where I tend to scroll a lot, but I didn't see the option.