Stadia 2.39 prepares free trial for Google One members, more

Kyle Bradshaw | Oct 12 2020 - 4:52 pm PT

The latest update to Google Stadia for Android, version 2.39, includes preparation for a free trial of Stadia Pro for Google One members.

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in the case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

Google One free trial

For a few years now, Google has offered a Google One subscription that nets you increased cloud storage along with other occasional benefits like a free Home Mini. With the latest update to Google Stadia, we find that Google One members may soon be getting an extended free trial of Stadia Pro as a membership benefit.

Thanks for being a Google One member. Enjoy a

trial, on us.

We’re not sure how long this particular free trial will be, as the amount of time is not filled in. It’s entirely possible that the length of the trial may be based on your Google One membership level, similar to how some tiers get 3% store credit back from Google Store versus 10% on higher tiers.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether this benefit can also be applied to existing Google Stadia players, including those who have redeemed a “Pro Pass” or Buddy Pass before.

Quicker Stadia Controller setup?

One of the slightly annoying things about setting up the Stadia Controller, especially if you have more than one WiFi network that you tend to play on, is that you need to manually enter your WiFi password when switching networks. By comparison, the Google Home app is typically able to pull saved WiFi passwords from your Android phone.

With Stadia 2.39, we’ve found the beginnings of work to possibly “retrieve” a saved password for a WiFi network, for use with “gotham,” Google’s codename for the official Stadia Controller.

attempting to retrieve saved wifi password for ssid:
attempting to connect using saved wifi password
had no inner device info for the active gotham, cannot retrieve saved password

From the way it’s phrased, it’s possible that the Stadia app may be trying to retrieve the password directly from an already connected controller. This would make sense, as non-system Android apps are not typically allowed to access your device’s saved passwords.

As this still appears to be very early work, it’s impossible to say when or if this improvement could ever launch.