The Nest Hub on the desk is hardly ever used. Many people want to see if they can utilize that secondary screen as an extended display for their computer.
Over the past decade, we've gotten more value from the Google Nest Hub than any other smart home device—or, ultimately, any other tech product. This 7-inch smart display launched in 2018 for $149, but is often sold for much less, and people have used it almost every day since. A standard Google Nest Hub sits on a desk, and the larger Nest Hub Max sits in the kitchen. Of all the smart display features, the integrated Google Cast stands out the most.
Google Cast, formerly known as built-in Chromecast , allows users to stream content from any device on their home network to a Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max. People watch YouTube videos, listen to music, and stream movies and TV shows on their smart displays. However, the Nest Hub on the desk is hardly ever used. Many people want to see if they can utilize that secondary display as an extension for their computer. It turns out to be quite different from what was expected.
Google Cast is built into all Nest Hub devices.
Play music, movies, and more – even from your desktop PC.
First, it's important to note the limitations of using the Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max as an external display. The biggest limitation is obviously that both of these smart displays rely solely on wireless connectivity to receive content. Furthermore, these two smart home accessories only support Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5 , so they don't take advantage of the most advanced wireless connectivity technologies. These specifications are good enough to stream a song or video, but they don't achieve the latency we typically expect from a computer.
Other limitations stem from the size and resolution of the Nest Hub's screen. The smaller version only has a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600, while the larger version offers a 10-inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800. These smart displays not only have rudimentary HD quality but also use non-standard resolutions. Both the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max have a 16:10 aspect ratio, so your computer monitor may not automatically adjust to the ratio.
Smaller screens and lower resolutions certainly limit the use cases of the Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max as an external computer monitor. Neither is a good choice for tasks requiring the highest clarity or fastest response times. However, both the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max support Google Cast right out of the box, so you don't need to install any additional apps or software to share your computer screen with them. You will need a Windows or macOS app that supports Google Cast sharing, but finding one will be easier than you think.
Use Google Cast to extend your computer screen.
This is a great solution that leverages existing hardware.
The great thing about this method of extending your PC setup is that it leverages the hardware and software you already use. In the case of a Nest Hub on your desk, it's perfect for use as a secondary desktop display. An easy way to start sharing content from your computer to the smart display is to use Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome . Many people always keep Chrome on every computer they use, and streaming from Google's browser is very simple.
Click More settings → Cast, Save, and Share → Cast and select your Nest Hub screen to start the sharing session. Before starting the stream, you can click the Sources drop-down menu to choose between sharing a tab or your entire screen. The latter option will project your computer screen onto your Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max. This is convenient in an office environment, as you can rotate your Nest Hub to share your screen with others.
Technically, there's no way to "extend" your computer screen using Chrome's Google Cast feature, but there is an alternative. Download the Virtual Display Driver (GitHub project) for Windows 10 and 11 and use it to create an additional virtual monitor. The setup process is simple – just follow the installation instructions on the GitHub page and select at least one virtual monitor after launching the program. Your computer will then "think" it has an additional monitor connected.
In this way, you can use Chrome's screen mirroring feature to project that virtual screen onto your Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max. This method helped me turn my Nest Hub into a secondary display using only Chrome and a free GitHub project for screen virtualization. By using virtualization, you can set different resolutions for the main screen and the Nest Hub, using the perfect aspect ratio for each screen. And indeed, everything worked well.
Note : Another app that can share your PC screen with Nest Hub on macOS or Windows is AirParrot 3. This is a paid app that handles network-wide sharing via AirPlay and Google Cast. However, it's not reliable for the use case in the example setup, so this article has opted to use Google Chrome instead.