If you are a hardcore gamer you might know Steam is the popular program for buying and playing video games on your computer. However, you might wonder how can you play steam games on android? We have good news for you that steam has just released their Android app that allows you to play Steam games on your Android device. The new app is known as Steam Link and that helps you to stream any game that is running on your computer onto your Android phone or tablet as long as they both are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
Now when you are playing a full-fledged PC game on your Android phone, it can get pretty cumbersome, if we are, to be honest. The new Steam Android app allows you to also use a separate controller through Bluetooth. The Steam Controller and an Xbox One are the only two officially supported ones.
The whole concept is not hard to set up and it’s free too. If you want to play your Steam games on your Android devices, below is a quick guide on how to play steam games on android.
How does Steam Streaming Works?
Game streaming is pretty simple in concept. The video game will still run on your computer, but the image and sound are thus compressed into a video stream and sent across the network to another device. In this case, your Android smartphone or tablet.
In return, the device you are playing on sends back the control commands to the PC. All the prevailing information runs over the network. However, if your network connection is fair enough, you will forget that the game is running remotely at all.
How to play steam games on android?
Here are some ways to play steam games on android
1. Enable Steam Streaming on Your PC
If you want to play Steam games on Android phone, the first thing you are supposed to do is some prep work on the PC side of the equation. You need not worry, it is very simple!
- Firstly, open the Steam client browser on your computer. Then, choose Steam and then onto the Steam Settings.
- Look for the Remote Play section under Steam Settings.
- Make sure that the box next to Enable Remote Play is checked. Now you need to select OK to confirm.
Here you don’t have to be concerned about the other settings you see here. For most of the people, the default settings will work fine. You can return to this window if you need to manage the paired Steam Link devices though.
You may also want to choose to Change desktop resolution to match the streaming client under the Advanced Host options. This ensures that games have correctly rendered to your Android phone display’s aspect ratio and resolution.
2. Connect Your Controller
While you can use the touch screen on your Android phone to control the Steam games, most titles are not going to play well without some form of physical restriction. The good news is that almost all the gamepads are compatible with Android and the Steam Link App.
One thing you need to keep in mind is that almost all computer games on Steam that support gamepads only have the native support for Xbox controllers. For instance, if you use a Playstation 4 controller on the remote device, it’s buttons won’t match what you view on the screen. For seasoned gamers, this is just a minor adjustment, but it is still something to keep in your mind.
3. Install and Connect the Steam Link App
The next thing you are supposed to do to play Steam games on Android is to find and download the Steam Link app on your Android phone. Now that you have installed Steam Link, you will have to log in with your Steam account credentials.
Once you have logged in for the first time, you will need to run a few tests to check whether your network speeds, the quality settings and controller connection are good. If all of this is green, you can start playing the game.
Then the Steam Link app will automatically detect any PC enabled for the remote play on the local network. The first time you connect you will need to enter a pin on the PC Steam client which appears on your mobile device when you first pair the two devices.
4. Launch Your Steam Games by Steam Link
Once you’re set, all which is left is to select the Steam game from your library that you want to go for. It will launch from the host computer and you will see that reflected on the mobile phone screen. From there on you can play your game just like if you were playing in front of your Personal Computer.
Stream Steam Games online with the help of the Internet
Organically, Steam remote play only works on the local area network. In other sayings, you need to keep your Android phone and Personal Computer on a similar LAN. Now Steam has launched a new feature which is known as Steam Link Anywhere. This makes you stream games from your PC, from the internet, on your phone. There are some necessary things you have to take into consideration before trying:
- Your domestic internet upload speed and latency is the most crucial factor.
- The wireless or WiFi internet connection consumed by the Android phone device needs a high speed, low-latency network.
- You should also see your mobile internet costs. Consider decreasing the quality of the stream through the in-app settings to save on data costs, unless you have an unlimited internet plan.
On your Steam desktop app to activate the feature:
- Go to the Settings and select the Account.
- Now you need to look for the Beta Participation option and choose Change.
- Choose Steam Beta Update from the dropdown and then restart Steam.
- Now in the Steam Link app, select the cog, choose Computer and then select Other Computer and follow the pairing instructions given.
Once your app and computer are linked with each other, you can then play the game over any connection, thus assuming that the connection is up to it.
That is it! You can now play your favourite Steam games on Android.
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