Google Stadia Lands on iPhone and iPad

Following in the footsteps of Amazon Luna, Google Stadia is now available on iPhone and iPad in Progressive Web App (PWA) form.

Google has yet to officially announce the release, but it revealed last month that this solution was coming soon. And if you do have an iPhone or iPad, you can visit stadia.google.com now in Google Chrome to get started. (You can add the web app to your i-device home screen as well, of course.) A future update will support Safari as well.

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The current implementation is considered a beta, and Google is expected to update it over time. It requires iOS 14.3 for some reason, and it works with the Stadia Controller, Xbox, PlayStation, and other Bluetooth-based controllers, and on-screen controls.

Oddly, Google does offer a Stadia mobile app for iPhone and iPad users in the Apple App Store. But the app can only be used to manage your account, set up a Stadia Controller, and make purchases in the Stadia store. To play games on iPhone or iPad, you need to use the web app.

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Conversation 8 comments

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    16 December, 2020 - 12:35 pm

    <p>It's too bad for Microsoft they couldn't have gotten X Cloud out on all platforms in time for the Cyberpunk 2077 launch and holidays 2020. It would have been at least a small win in the shadow of the Halo debacle.</p>

    • faustxd9

      Premium Member
      16 December, 2020 - 1:46 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#600369">In reply to Chris_Kez:</a></em></blockquote><p>Too bad they don't offer this to Xbox One users to allow them to play (maybe at 30fps and 720P) as a "free trial" or something for GamePass. Then again it is not a first party exclusive.</p>

  • remc86007

    16 December, 2020 - 12:36 pm

    <p>It amazes me that anyone would sign up for Stadia. Even streaming a racing, sports, or shooter game over wired LAN causes too much latency for me to put up with. As a supplement to an existing gaming ecosystem I see some utility in having a streaming service, but paying for games and paying monthly for a standalone streaming service makes no more sense today than it did when OnLive failed. I had OnLive back in 2012 over a fiber gigabit internet connection and the latency back then was no worse than what I get now over my fiber gigabit internet connection with Stadia, XCloud, etc.</p>

    • Vladimir Carli

      Premium Member
      17 December, 2020 - 8:35 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#600372">In reply to remc86007:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>you are probably very sensitive to latency. Maybe with the exception of FPSs, the latency is perfectly acceptable for 90% of the world population, especially if they use the stadia controller and they have gigabit ethernet. On wifi is a bit of a different story</p>

    • christianwilson

      Premium Member
      17 December, 2020 - 11:47 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#600372">In reply to remc86007:</a></em></blockquote><p>That is unfortunate. I don't doubt you experienced those issues, but I have had the opposite experience. </p><p><br></p><p>I play Stadia and Luna on Xfinity 120Mb service with eero mesh WiFi. When I play Stadia on the TV, the Chromecast Ultra is hardwired, otherwise, I play on other devices with WiFi. In the cases of both services, I use the Stadia Controller and Luna Controller. I had my doubts, but these services work for me. Stadia has worked exceptionally well. I don't know what Google is doing, but they made me a believer. Maybe it is my proximity to one of their datacenters. I don't know. </p><p><br></p><p>I have a great example of where Stadia shines. My parents wanted to get some kind of video game system for their house so the grandkids have something to play. Back in the 80s, we had an Intellivision that my parents would play but as life piled on priorities, they became lapsed gamers. $300-500 for a console that may not get used very often is a big investment so they bought a Stadia Premiere Edition on Black Friday for $60, bought a couple of party games, and now they have 4K gaming in their home (1080p if they decide not to subscribe to Stadia Pro). They have even expressed interest in playing some games together again when the kids aren't around. This would not have happened if the price of entry for quality gaming was hundreds of dollars.</p><p><br></p><p>Cloud gaming has its rough spots right now, but it is early days and improving all the time. The democratization of video games for everyone, regardless of the hardware they have or can afford, is awesome. This is something I hope Paul touches on as he continues his cloud gaming series of articles. </p>

  • retcable

    Premium Member
    17 December, 2020 - 7:41 am

    <p>Since Microsoft is so hot on PWA's across the board, why haven't they gotten X Cloud onto the iPhone yet? Way back when the iPhone was first launched, Steve Jobs pushed web apps as the way to go instead of having an app store for individual applications installing on your phone. You were supposed to just create a hyperlink to a web app on your home screen and use that. It is basically the same thing as using PWA's, so Microsoft should have their X Cloud gaming service available across the board on any device OS. </p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      17 December, 2020 - 8:12 am

      They already announced that this is coming. I think Xbox had its hands full with two major new console launches this holiday season.

  • vladimir

    Premium Member
    17 December, 2020 - 9:10 am

    <p>It works with Safari already now if you update to the latest version of iOS. I just tried it and I have to say that playing Cyberpunk2077 on a 12.9 iPad Pro is pretty amazing. We can finally make use of this technology. On the small phone screens is really just a demo, at least for oldies like me 🙂 on the iPad pro is my mobility gaming dream coming true</p>

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