Stadia on Chromecast Ultra may get better support from 3rd party controllers

Google will soon make it easier to play with third-party controllers on Stadia with the Chromecast Ultra. Now this is already possible with ‘Tandem Mode’, but owning a Stadia controller is still mandatory.

In the existing Tandem Mode , players who play Stadia on the Chromecast Ultra can connect their third-party controller to their Stadia controller via USB. Although you do not directly use the Stadia controller for operation, it is still required.

9to5Google has found references in version 3.15 of the Android app to a new bridge mode in which you can put your phone. In it, your phone can also serve as the controller, with the buttons visible on the touchscreen. As an extension of this, it is also possible to connect a third-party controller to the phone, the input of which then goes to Stadia. It is not yet clear whether the controller should be connected to the phone via USB cable or whether a bluetooth connection is also sufficient.

References to the functions are in a currently available version of the app, but the function does not work yet. In addition to this feature, there is also talk about controlling Stadia volume with your phone, integration with Google Contacts to make it easier to find fellow players and a shortcut for activating the screen reader , which reads text for the visually impaired.

Google Stadia is not yet available for the latest version of the Chromecast, equipped with Google TV. It is possible to transfer the .apk to the new Chromecast and install it there. 9to5Google found references to Google TV support in the Stadia app back in April.