Now I’m not sure about you, but my gaming days began on computers and consoles with actual control inputs, such as the joystick on the Amiga 500 or control pads on the NES, SNES and Sega Megadrive.
There’s nothing quite click pressing a button or pushing the cursor to get the desired movement from your gaming character.
Touchscreen gaming falls flat in my opinion, as good as some games are. I’m a little two cumbersome to accurately manage the controls on my smartphone, and it does take some of the fun out of the experience.
Now, the controller for Sony’s PlayStation 4, the DualShock 4, is one of the most popular gamepads right now. It’s even a great controller for people without PlayStation consoles, since it can also be used with gaming PCs and Android devices. That’s right, you could be playing Fortnite, Minecraft, and plenty of other titles on your phone with physical controls with a PlayStation 4 controller.
Here we’ll show you how to set up the DS4 with your Android phone or tablet.
Via Bluetooth
The DualShock 4 can connect to your phone over a Bluetooth connection, just like it does with a regular PlayStation console. First, hold down on the PlayStation and Share buttons on your controller until the light bar on the back starts to flash white. This places the DS4 into pairing mode.
Next, open the Bluetooth options in your phone’s Settings app, and pick the option to pair a new device. Tap the DualShock 4 in the list (it may simply show up as ‘Wireless Controller’), confirm the pairing if you get a popup, and you’re done.
Now you can play all of your Android favourites using your PS4 controller – neat!
Oh, and in case you are wondering how the buttons operate, here’s a guide of how to use the PS4 controller on your device:
Touchpad: Moves a mouse cursor around on the screen, click or tap to press the mouse. Use two fingers to scroll up/down, like on a laptop touchpad.
PlayStation Button: Takes you home.
◯ Button: Takes you back.
△ Button: Types a space.
◻ Button: Acts as a Delete key.
✕ Button/Options Button: Acts as an Enter key.
Left Joystick/D-Pad: Changes highlighted app on the home screen, moves cursor position in text, etc.
Enjoy!