Our smartphones have gotten so good at playing games that many don't bother buying gaming consoles or PCs anymore. Nonetheless, playing some games on your phone can be a daunting task if you’re using the touchscreen alone. What if you can pair up an actual gaming controller and take your gaming experience up a notch? That’s where connecting to the popular Nintendo Switch Controller comes in. In this post, we'll teach you how to connect your phone with Nintendo Switch controllers and take your gaming up a notch!
More so, we’ll tell you how you can convert your phone’s screen to a virtual controller for your Nintendo Switch if you don’t want to invest in an expensive controller.
How to connect the phone to Nintendo Switch controllers
Many Android games let you use controllers like the Nintendo Switch Controller to enhance your gaming and make it real.
Follow these steps below to learn how to connect the phone to Nintendo Switch controllers.
- Enable Bluetooth on your phone.
- Turn on the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and long-press the Sync button until it starts flashing.
- Now long-press the Bluetooth tile in your phone’s Quick Settings panel to open the Bluetooth menu. (Or go to Settings > Connections > Bluetooth)
- Select the option to Pair a new device.
- Bring the controllers near your phone, and in a few seconds, it should show up under Available devices.
- From there, click on Pro Controller and pair up with it.
- Once the controller is connected, you can use it now. Open any supported game on your phone and play away!
That’s how to connect the Nintendo Switch to the phone. Meanwhile, your device must be running at least Android 10 to use these controllers. Plus, it won’t work on every game. If it doesn’t work on your favorite game, try another one.
How to Use Your Phone as a Nintendo Switch Controller
To use your phone as a Nintendo Switch keyboard and controller, you'll need to install the JoyCon Doid app on your phone. The app turns your phone into a virtual controller once paired with your Nintendo Switch. And if you have many other players who want to join the game, they can pair up their phones.
However, the caveat is that the JoyCon app is no longer available on the Play Store at this time of writing, and the latest version requires root access for it to work. So, if you want to use your phone as a Nintendo Switch controller, you must have rooted your phone and be ready to sideload the app. If you can't do these, then stay away.
Hint: Gaming phone
It might not be worth it. But if you must, here’s how to connect the phone to Nintendo Switch using the JoyCon Droid app:
- Download and install the JoyCon Droid app (from APKPure)
- Startup your Nintendo Switch
- Navigate to Controllers, followed by Change Grip/Order.
- Long-press ‘_’ to pair.
- Press the Sync button on the JoyCon Droid app and allow your phone to be discovered.
- Wait for a few seconds to establish the connection, in which the controller icon on the Nintendo Switch will turn grey.
- To confirm if the connection is established, press any button on the app.
That’s it. You can now use your phone to control the Switch flawlessly. Nonetheless, since the app is not very stable, you may experience some glitches. However, it's still a good choice if you can’t afford to buy extra Joy-Cons or a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and your phone is rooted. Some issues may require you to reconnect a saving device, disconnect a paired device, or remove a saved device on the Nintendo Switch if it’s not working well after connecting your phone with it.
A side note, though: if your phone isn’t rooted already, there’s no point rooting it just to use the JoyCon app. And even considering the app is no longer on the Play Store, it’s not worth it.
Can I play my Nintendo Switch on my phone?
Yes, you can now play some Nintendo Switch games on your mobile phone. There might be a couple of reasons you want to play your Nintendo Switch games on your smartphone, even if you already have a console like the Nintendo Switch OLED.
Whatever reason it is, it's possible to play Switch games on your mobile phone using an emulator. The most popular emulator people use is the Egg NS Emulator, and it requires that your phone has a powerful processor. It won’t work smoothly on any phone powered by anything older than the Snapdragon 855 chipset or its equivalent. So, if you’re going to play Nintendo on your phone, you better be sure your processor can handle it and you have strong Wi-Fi to download the required files.
More so, you’ll need to download ROMs for any Nintendo game you want to play on your phone. But don’t fret; there are many games available to play!
How to connect the phone to Nintendo Switch: Final thoughts
The coolest thing about the Nintendo Switch is that, unlike many other video gaming consoles, you can take it around with you. It’s portable enough to sit around in your pocket when you leave home, and it has quite a lot of games to play with.
It gets even more impressive when you know you can connect it to your phone and do several other stuff on it. If you were stuck on how to connect your phone to Nintendo Switch, this article should save you!
