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Google Stadia for Android rolling out wireless controller support

One of the most unique aspects of Google Stadia is its controller, which instead of connecting wirelessly over Bluetooth, connects over Wi-Fi directly to your Stadia instance. Starting today, you can now use the Stadia Controller wirelessly when playing on your Android phone.

It’s been clear since last year, with the launch of the Stadia Controller “Claw” that mounts the controller to your phone, that Google sees playing AAA games on your phone as an important aspect of Stadia. However, up to now, this has required you to connect the controller to your phone via a USB-C cable, which made things far more inconvenient and drained more power from your phone.

Today on the Stadia Community Blog, Google has announced that Android devices can now pair with the Stadia Controller over Wi-Fi, just like on Chromecast and desktop. Apparently the change is rolling out on the server side over the course of the day, but you’ll need to be on the newest version of the Stadia app, version 2.23, released last week.

We believe this change is also being done in preparation for Google Stadia’s Android TV app, which will almost certainly work best when playing with the Stadia Controller over Wi-Fi instead of a USB or Bluetooth connection.

As always, to connect the Stadia Controller wirelessly, your Android phone/tablet will need to be on the same Wi-Fi network as the controller. This, of course, means that the Stadia Controller will not be able to connect wirelessly if Google ever allows playing from a mobile data connection, something we’ve recently seen work toward.

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Avatar for Kyle Bradshaw Kyle Bradshaw

Kyle is an author and researcher for 9to5Google, with special interests in Made by Google products, Fuchsia, and uncovering new features.

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