Google Stadia, the streaming service that allows you to play games without a console, has a new feature that also allows you to play games without a controller. The feature, called Phone Link, transforms your Android or iOS device into a touch-screen controller that lets you play Stadia on an Android TV or Chr🥂omecast without the need for a or Bluetooth controller. Phone Link has an extraordinarily narrow use case within Stadia’s already hyper-niche platform, but it’s impressive tech nonetheless that, if nothing else, I find inspiring for future, undiscovered applications. It’s well ahead of its time, like Stadia itself, but in the unbelievably rare circumstance where you might need something like this, it certainly doesn’t hurt as an option.
Part of me is delighted by the idea of Phone Link. If you have a TV and a phone - which literally everyone I know does - you could be playing Life is Strange: True Colors right now, instantly, with no downloads. Of course, there are some major caveats to that claim. It can’t be any old TV - it has to be an Android or Google TV, or a TV with a Chromecast connected to it. It also can’t be any old phone - it has to be a phone that already supports Stadia, though granted, the list of compatible devices is fairly exhaustive. You’ll also need to actually buy Life is Strange: True Colors for full price, as, unlike 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Game Pass, new releases typically aren’t part of the Stadia Pro ಞsubscription service. Oh, and you’ll need incredibly fast, reliable WiFi, or a hard line connecting your TV to your network. But if you🌜 have all of that, Phone Link will work! Sort of.
Below is a picture of the Phone Link interface. You have all of your buttons and control sticks in a vaguely controller-like layout, though obviously, not nearly as intuitive or simple to use. Rather than using your thumbs to control the sticks and face button while your other fingers press the shoulder buttons and triggers, you have to use your thumbs to find and press everything. There’s even a separate button for R3 and L3, since you can’t exactly push down on the sticks. If you need to do a multi-button input like, say, hold left trigger and🍰 press X while moving the left stick in a certain direction, you won’t be able to do that. You also don’t get any feedback from button presses, making it hard to identify which buttons you’re pressing.
I’ve recently spent a lot of time with the onscreen controls that Game Pass offers on mobile devices, and I learned to really enjoy using them. The interface does a g𝓀ood job of guessing which button you meant to press even if you’re slightly off, and each game has its own customized layout. You won’t find any of that on Phone Link, however, and what’s more, it’s immediately apparent that using an on-screen controller is only really feasible when you’re also looking at the screen, rather than up at a TV.
The c🐎ontroller layout isn’t going to work for every game, and I would likely need to spend a lot of time practicing with this. Even then, it doesn’t seem like it’s ever going to feel particularly good to use. Luckily, I don’t need to learn it because, like most Stadia users, I have a Stadia controller. I can kind of imagine using my phone if I’m traveling, but it’s also not that big of a deal to pack one controller.
The update also added Bluetooth controller support to Android TV, which was already a feature on Chromecast with Google TV, but I think Phone Link might be a better option than using an Xbox or PlayStation controller. Bluetooth controllers have terrible latency, so if you’re playing any game that requires even semi-precise inputs, an Xbox controller is a non-starter. Your phone, on the other hand, is a WiFi device just like the 🅷actual Stadia controller, so I had no latency whatsoever while using it.
This brings me to the one thing that I’m actually enthusiastic about: Phone Link works perfectly with mobile controllers. I’m using the Razer Kishi, which essentially transforms an Android phone into a tiny Nintendo Switch, and I had a great time using it to play Stadia on my TV with no latency. It’s the second best option after a Stadia controller, and since I pack the Razer Kishi with me when I travel anyway, it’s a good substitute. I wasn’t able to try the Backbone controller on an iOS device, but I assume that would work as well. You could also plug a wired controller into your phone with some kind of adapter and effectively turn your Xbox controller into a WiFI controller with your phone as a bridge, but that's probably the most inconvenient way to possibly use this feature. At that point, just get a Stadia controller.
Ultimately, it♋’s difficult to imagine why anyone would ever need to use Phone Link. The onscreen controls are pretty unintuitive, and wouldn’t work at all with a lot of games. The best use case I could imagine is playing something like Monopoly with your family when you only have one Stadia controller. I tried connecting a Stadia controller and my phone to play two-player Monopoly and it works great, but so does just doing the pass-and-play option with a singl🍨e controller. I love the idea of playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla without an Xbox or a controller, but actually doing it? Pretty miserable.
But, I’m nevertheless impressed by Stadia’s commitment to forward-thinking technology. I imagine it won’t be too long before phones start coming with shoulder buttons built into them like the Red Magic or Asus ROG air triggers, which will help Phone Link a lot. Ultimately, I appreciate that Stadia is committed to becoming an ultra-accessible platform, and even if Phone Link isn’t exactly a feature I want or need today, it still feels foundational in the same way that State Share and Crowd Play do. It’s not going to revolutionize the industry overnight, but it's still innovative and boundary-pushing in a way that no other platform is trying to be. I may even use it again if I find myself out of the house somewhere with my phone, Razer Kishi, and an Android TV with really good internet, who knows.