Last July, Google invaded the living room in a big way with Chromecast – a little HDMI dongle that streamed content to your television from an Android device. It was and still is a big hit thanks to its affordable $35 asking price, but developers weren’t so keen on it thanks to Google only letting select partners build apps. In fact, Google killed a third party app called AllCast that allowed users to stream local content stored on their PC to their TV. All of that can be put behind us though thanks to the release of the Chromecast SDK.

Google announced today that the Google Cast SDK is finally available to download. This is the SDK you’re going to need when building apps for Chromecast. It will allow you to integrate Google Cast into your apps for Android, iOS and Chrome so that users can stream content from their smartphone or Chromebook to their TV.

This is big news as it essentially opens the floodgates in regards to Chromecast apps. Until now, Google has been incredibly selective by only letting a few partners use the Google Cast API in their apps. Google’s pickiness has led to some noteworthy apps being left out, like Amazon Instant Video. Apps like AllCast and other local streaming apps are now also possible thanks to this release.

If you want to start building an app right now and don’t know where to start, you might want to watch the below video first. In it, Google gives a brief overview of the SDK and what you need to get started on development:

To learn more, you’ll want to check out the Google Developers page for Google Cast and its documentation.

Image via Google Developers