Google Stadia is now free for everyone, but there are still strict limits on the devices you’re allowed to use Google’s games streaming service with. Apple iPhones and iPads remain officially off limits, but a clever workaround allows you to play Stadia games completely wirelessly on an iPad, using the Stadia controller.
Earlier this week, Google finally delivered on one of its pre-launch promises, namely the ability to use the Stadia controller wirelessly with any computer.
That facility, combined with Apple’s Sidecar technology, means Mac owners can now play Stadia on an iPad with the wireless controller, as first spotted by alochner on Reddit.
Sidecar allows Mac owners to use their iPad as a secondary display. If you drag the Chrome browser window onto the iPad and maximise the browser window, you have full-screen Stadia on your iPad – albeit one with black bars at the top and bottom of the display, as the iPad’s aspect ratio doesn’t neatly fit with most games.
You might imagine the latency caused by using a cloud gaming service on a wireless display with a wireless controller would be chronic, but in my tests with a 2o18 iPad Pro it worked remarkably smoothly in even fast-moving racing games such as DIRT. It would be a brave choice for games where latency is absolutely critical, such as Destiny 2, but for most games the lag would barely be noticeable.
The bigger question is: why? Why use an iPad’s display when you’ve surely got a bigger Mac display to hand? Well, if that Mac is an iPad that’s fixed to a desk, for example, you might want to enjoy a more leisurely gaming session with the iPad on the sofa.
Perhaps more importantly, it’s a proof of concept that Stadia works smoothly on the iPad, begging the question: how long will it be before Stadia is officially supported on Apple’s mobile devices? To be clear, there is already a Stadia app for iOS, but it’s only a store front, you cannot play games via the app.
Google has begun broadening the number of mobile devices that are Stadia compatible, although adding iOS support is likely to be more of a political problem than a technical one. Will Apple demand a cut on any games Stadia players purchase via an iOS device, for instance? That’s a cut Google is unlikely to want to hand to a rival.
However, the presence of rival streaming games services such as Shadow in the App Store will give Stadia players hope that full iOS/iPadOS support is not a pipe dream.
