At its core, Steam Link has always been about mirroring Steam's Big Picture mode from your PC to another screen in your home and the focus on Android gives gamers the flexiblity to stream their games to a phone, tablet, or Android TV - and while playing games on your phone is surely a nice novelty, the Steam Link app really shines on living room TV. The Steam community has become a great place for developers to get direct feedback from gamers and helped Valve become one of the gaming industry's most prominent game publishers.Īfter dabbling in the hardware market with the Steam Link console and controller, it makes more sense for Valve to build its streaming technology into the Steam Link app. Since launching Steam back in 2003, it's been the de facto destination for PC gamers eager to discover and download new games. Valve's impact on gaming is well-documented. Source: Android Central (Image credit: Source: Android Central) Streaming to your phone is cool, but Steam Link really shines on Android TV

Even with the Bluetooth controllers there's still some input lag, but it's not nearly as bad as with a keyboard and mouse. This is just part of the reality of a wireless setup that involves both screen sharing over a Wi-Fi network and a Bluetooth connection. There's noticable input lag when using a mouse and it makes for a very frustrating experience. If you're thinking of using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, it's not going to work the way you think. We've got roundups of the best game controllers for the NVIDIA Shield and the best overall controllers for Android so you're sure to find either an option that you either already own or one that fits in your gaming budget. What controllers can you use with Steam Link?Īs you'd expect, Valve recommends using its own Steam controller (opens in new tab), but unless you already have one of those laying around you're more than fine to use any other Bluetooth controller you own that can pair to your phone or Android TV console.

Steam link nintendo switch