Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Following its announcement earlier this month, a beta version of Valve’s Steam Link game streaming service has arrived on the Google Play store. The Steam Link app brings desktop gaming to your Android device

More about Steam link app

Valve Senior Software Engineer Sam Lantinga said that “if you have a powerful rig, wired network, and very good client device, it’s possible to stream at 4K 60 fps,” though 1080p at 60 fps will be what most people experience. You can go into the advanced streaming settings, and tune streaming resolution and bitrate for the best experience in your setup.”

Steam Link supports any Android app running Android 5.0 Lollipop and above, as well as Android TVs. For the best results, the PC you’re streaming from should be connected to your router with an Ethernet cable, and your Android phone or tablet should be connected to the 5GHz band of your home WiFi network. With it, you can play your collection of Steam titles on your smartphone, provided you have a powerful computer to run said games and you’re under the same roof.

As for controller options, any Bluetooth controller that’s compatible with Android or the Steam Controller (which gained Bluetooth LE support earlier this week) will work.

Apple fans will have to wait a bit longer, however. The app is coming to iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs as well, but Valve says that Steam Link is still pending further review from Apple at the moment.

Prior to this, Valve had introduced Steam Link via the Steam Machine. It was a device that users could connect to the TV in order to stream games from their PC. While Steam Link comes from the same initiative, it’s good to see Valve ditch the hardware unit and make the service free of cost.

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