Your Chromecast With Google TV Just Got Its First Update in 11 Months

If you’d started to assume Google had quietly stopped caring about the Chromecast with Google TV, you weren’t being paranoid. The 4K dongle went eleven months without a software update. On October 12, that streak ended.

Google is rolling out firmware UTTA.260813.002 to the Chromecast with Google TV (4K). It’s the device’s first update of 2026, and it moves the security patch level from October 2025 all the way to August 2026, according to 9to5Google and Google’s own release notes.

What’s in the update

Not much you’ll see. Google’s changelog lists the newer security patch and “other bug fixes and performance improvements,” with no new features. GoogleWatchBlog suggests the release may mainly lay groundwork for future updates, but that’s speculation, and Google hasn’t said anything about what comes next.

The security piece matters more than it sounds. A streaming stick is a network-connected computer sitting in your living room, signed in to your Google account and a handful of paid streaming services. Ten months of missing patches is a long gap for anything like that, and this update closes most of it.

Where every Google streamer stands

The update isn’t reaching every device at once. Here’s the current picture based on Google’s firmware release notes and reporting from 9to5Google and Jetstream:

The previous 4K build, UTTC.250917.004, arrived on November 25, 2025, per Jetstream. The HD model shares that build and the October 2025 patch. 9to5Google notes there’s no HD release today even though Google usually updates both together, and GoogleWatchBlog expects it to follow within days. Google hasn’t confirmed a date.

How to install it

Rollouts are staged, so your Chromecast may not see it immediately. To check manually:

1. On your Chromecast, go to Settings.
2. Open System, then About.
3. Select System update and let it download if one is available.
4. After the reboot, check the build number in the same About screen. You want UTTA.260813.002.

What this says about the Chromecast’s future

Google retired the Chromecast line when it introduced the Google TV Streamer in 2024, so every update to the old dongles now feels like a judgment call rather than a routine. This one is good news for owners. It shows Google is still willing to ship security fixes to hardware it no longer sells, even if the cadence has slowed to a crawl.

Don’t read it as a promise, though. Google hasn’t published an end-of-support date for either Chromecast model, and an 11-month gap between updates isn’t a schedule anyone should plan around. Meanwhile, Google’s attention is clearly on the box that replaced it. 9to5Google reported last week that a next-generation Google TV Streamer with microphones and presence sensing is in the works.

So here’s the practical advice. If your 4K Chromecast still streams everything you watch, install this update and keep using it; it’s in better shape today than it was last week. If you own the HD model, keep an eye on that System update screen. And if you were thinking about buying a Chromecast with Google TV on clearance, this update makes it a safer pick, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’d be buying a device Google has already moved past.

Sources: 9to5Google, Google Chromecast Help, Jetstream, GoogleWatchBlog. Photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash.