Setup & full feature guide

What you need

• An Android phone and a Bluetooth controller (PS5 DualSense, Xbox Wireless, 8BitDo, etc.).
• A Windows PC on the same Wi-Fi network as the phone.
• 5 GHz Wi-Fi is strongly recommended for the lowest, steadiest latency.

1. Pair your controller to your phone

Connect your controller in Android's normal Bluetooth settings — the same way you'd pair headphones. To put common pads in pairing mode: DualSense — hold PS + Create until the light bar flashes; Xbox — hold the pair button on top until the logo flashes. You can pair up to four and relay them all at once — free play and premium both include it.

2. Connect to your PC

1. On your PC, install the Controller Gateway receiver and run it. Easiest: on the PC go to controller-gateway.com/pc, or tap Set up your PC in the app to send yourself the link. The first run installs the virtual-controller driver (ViGEmBus) and adds a firewall rule — approve both. A tray icon shows how many controllers are connected.
2. In the app, tap Find PC, and pick your machine from the list.
3. Tap Start. Windows now sees a standard Xbox controller — test it in any game or in joy.cpl.

Reading the controller rows

Connected controllers appear as rows, each showing its player number (P1–P4), the controller name, its battery level, and whether it's charging. Battery is best-effort — some phones don't report a DualSense's level, in which case the row simply omits it rather than showing a wrong figure.

Rumble

On PC, force-feedback travels back from the game to your controller's own motors, so you actually feel the action. No setup — it just works with games that support rumble. There's also a vibration switch per controller, handy if one player wants it off without affecting the others.

Controller Studio

Controller Studio lets you remap buttons, tune stick response curves and deadzones, adjust trigger sensitivity, and set up turbo or gyro aiming — all saved as a profile per controller, so each pad keeps its own settings.

Low-battery alert

If a controller drops below ~15% and isn't charging, the app can play a short beep every few minutes so you're never caught out mid-match. There's a toggle to switch it off if you'd rather it stayed silent.

Battery saver: Screen dim

Tap Screen dim to black out the phone and drop the brightness to minimum during long sessions — on AMOLED phones, black pixels draw almost no power. It relays the whole time. Before it goes dark, a prompt reminds you how to get back: double-tap the screen to wake it.

Touchpad as a mouse

On PS5 DualSense and PS4 DualShock 4 pads, the touchpad moves the Windows cursor — handy for launchers, browsers or anything mouse-driven without reaching for a physical mouse. Tap to left-click, press and hold to right-click.

Using up to 4 controllers

Pair each controller to your phone and they'll relay as separate players (P1–P4) — perfect for local co-op. All four are included in free play, and the £2.99 premium unlock keeps them going with unlimited play.

Check your latency

Curious about your network? Long-press the status line (the "Streaming to… / Stopped" text) to run a built-in latency test — it sends 400 timing pings and reports the median, 95th percentile and min–max one-way latency. Run it while streaming to see real-world numbers. On a good 5 GHz LAN, expect low single-digit milliseconds.

Free play and the premium unlock

Every install gets 6 hours of free play with everything unlocked: up to 4 controllers, Controller Studio, the touchpad mouse, screen dim, low-battery alerts and the per-controller vibration switch. Only time with a controller relaying to your PC counts — setting up, searching for your PC and sitting in menus don't. The banner on the main screen shows how much free play you have left.

While you play, the app warns you at 30, 10, 5 and 1 minute left: controllers with vibration on buzz 1, 2, 3 or 4 times (where the controller supports it), and the phone shows a reminder with the time left. When the time runs out, the controller gives one long buzz.

Free play is counted on our server, so reinstalling the app doesn't reset it, and it needs an internet connection to count time. When it's used up, relaying stops and the status line says "Your free play time is used — unlock to keep playing." Pairing, battery readout and controller calibration still work. The PC receiver is always free. To keep playing:

1. Tap the banner on the main screen (or tap Start once free play is used up) to open the purchase screen.
2. Buy the unlock through Google Play — £2.99, a single one-time purchase for unlimited play, not a subscription.
3. It applies immediately, and restores automatically if you reinstall the app or sign into the same Google account on another device.