Mobile platforms seem to look more attractive every day. This has been happening in fits and starts for years, starting with the first full-scale ports over to phones and tablets, but mobile gaming seems to have really taken off in the past two years, with Fortnite leading the charge for mass adoption of a traditional shooter, Apple Arcade offering a stunningly good deal with a huge collection of premium games for $4.99 a month, and just the other day we got a capable, if stripped-down port of Call of Duty. It might have you wondering how to up your mobile gaming experience, and a controller is a good place to start. Let's take a look at how to connect a PS4 controller to an iPhone or iPad with iOS 13.
Note that not all games will support a controller, like the aforementioned Call of Duty mobile. But Apple Arcade, in particular, is very controller friendly, so it's a handy trick to have in your bag.
If you're using a PS4 controller, things couldn't be easier, so here's how you do it.
- Turn Bluetooth on, on your mobile device
- Hold down the PS and "share" buttons on the Dualshock 4 until the light bar starts flashing
- Select the controller on your mobile device.
That's it! You're ready to use a PS4 controller on a phone. The first game I tried was Sayonora Wild Hearts, and it's basically a different game when you're not using touch controls. I'm excited to dive into my library and see what works best with a controller, particularly as I've got all these new arcade games to try. A lot of my favorite mobile games are specifically geared to touch controls, but this opens up a whole new range of experiences that I typically avoided before because I just didn't want to use an inferior control scheme.
If you're a mobile gamer only, consider picking one of these up. Sure, it's quite a bit more expensive than even the most expensive mobile games out there, but it really does transform this gaming experience into something different.
