CheapCast has disappeared from the Play Store, taking with it a convenient way to turn any old Android device into a makeshift Chromecast. To make matters worse, there's a good chance the app will never return.

Since CheapCast's release, Google has added several cryptographic checks to make sure the Chromecast ecosystem only works with approved devices such as Google's $35 dongle, Google TVs, and the like. The feature now checks for a Google signed certificate, which comes preloaded on such products.

Devices running CheapCast, however, lack this key. Rather than deal with a mob of users wondering why CheapCast fails to work with the updated version of apps, the developer has chosen to pull the software.

Some apps, such as YouTube, still work with CheapCast. Yet this may change with any future updates to such apps. The developer could theoretically get around the matter by bundling the key with CheapCast, but it would take little effort for Google to blacklist software getting around its system in such a way. After all, the company never did release an official API for this portion of the process. Google made the act of casting relatively open on the sending end, but not on the receiving side.

CheapCast's developer is still following the situation and intends to bring back CheapCast if an opportunity presents itself. Whether it does, though, remains to be seen.