The Google device released in 2013 for streaming video and music to a television was Chromecast.
Google introduced the first Chromecast in July 2013. It was a small, inexpensive HDMI device that let users send, or “cast,” content from supported mobile apps and web browsers to a television.
Unlike a traditional set-top box with a full remote-controlled interface, the original Chromecast relied heavily on a phone, tablet, or computer to choose content. This simple design helped it support services such as YouTube and Netflix without requiring a large on-device interface.
Chromecast is sometimes confused with the Nexus Q, an earlier Google media-streaming experiment announced in 2012. The Nexus Q was more expensive and was never broadly released, while Chromecast reached consumers in 2013.