Gamers will love the new addition in Android 17

The Google operating system is getting ready to welcome a feature that mobile gaming enthusiasts have been clamoring for years.

Currently in testing through the dedicated program, Android 17 Beta 2 introduces the possibility to remap controllers natively at the system level.

Anyone who owns a compatible smartphone, including the Pixel 6 and newer, already has the opportunity to try this novelty in advance by installing the latest build.

Android 17 allows native remapping of physical controllers

Until now, the options for physical control customization depended heavily on individual developers or third-party applications, often with suboptimal results.

Today, the new integration ensures that every single configured setting remains active and coherent, regardless of the specific title the user is playing at that moment.

As highlighted in a recent post on Reddit by Mishaal Rahman, head of Android community engagement at Google, the platform already fundamentally supports a vast range of gamepads.

This extended compatibility has fueled a notable growth of games, available on the Play Store, fully playable with the controller. The real strength of the new option, however, lies in its adaptability: people can decide exactly what happens when they press a specific button, squeeze the triggers or perform other actions on their pads.

In addition to significantly improving the entertainment experience, this flexibility offers concrete advantages on the accessibility front. If a button is difficult to reach or press for specific physical needs, it will be enough to assign that function to a more comfortable and easy-to-activate input.

Similarly, those accustomed to the typical layouts of other consoles will no longer have to fight against their muscle memory, being able to recreate a familiar layout directly on their smartphone without effort.

La gestione dei dispositivi cablati e wireless

The process to access these configuration menus has been designed to be highly intuitive, while presenting slight differences depending on the type of connection used for the peripheral.

If you are using a wired gamepad, simply navigate to the smartphone’s general settings, go to the system section, and then select the entry related to game controllers, where the list of currently connected devices will appear.

For Bluetooth-based devices, instead, the path goes through the connected devices screen. From there, by tapping the menu icon next to the gamepad name and accessing the device details page, you can easily enter the game’s preferences.

Once you reach the final screen for reassigning the commands, the interface is divided in a very logical way. On one side are the classic button inputs, the triggers and the pressing of the analog sticks; another section is dedicated exclusively to directional inputs, such as the sticks themselves and the traditional directional pad.

The operating system allows replacing the action of one key with that of another key, while a directional command can assume the functions of another directional command, maintaining the structural coherence of the peripheral.

Comments that emerged online from enthusiasts confirm great enthusiasm and strong anticipation for the final rollout of this feature.