While Android has supported game controllers natively for over a decade, the experience isn’t always ideal. Most game engines and developers still have to do the heavy lifting, especially when it comes to remapping. With Android 17, Google wants to solve this problem for good.
Android supports a wide range of game controllers, including the PS5 DualSense, and for the most part, the experience works well out of the box. That is, as long as you are comfortable with the default button layout. The issue occurs when you want to remap the button input.
Android itself doesn’t offer native controller remapping. Instead, it’s up to game engines and developers to add support for this feature. This provides an inconsistent experience, as some games may offer in-depth customizations while others provide limited options. And for the end-users, it leads to a frustrating mess.
Google will finally put an end to this mess by adding native controller remapping in Android 17. Mishaal Rahman, community engagement expert for Android at Google, published the nitty-gritty details of this change in a post on Reddit.
He notes that Google is making this improvement in Android 17 to improve accessibility and reduce muscle memory conflict when switching between different platforms.
A new Game Controller settings menu in Android 17 will let you customize the actions of the paired controller, including the buttons, stickers, and triggers. All these changes will apply at the system level, so you don’t have to remap the buttons individually for each game.
“For example, you can remap a difficult-to-press thumbstick click to an easier-to-reach face button. Your remapping preferences are saved to your device so you don’t have to set them up every time you reconnect your controller,” says Mishaal.
Customization options are already live in Android 17 beta
If you are running the latest Android 17 beta on your Pixel, you will find the Game Controller settings menu in Settings > System > Game Controller. System-wide button remapping is available for both wired and wireless game controllers. The options for the latter will appear under Connected Devices > Device details > Game Controller settings.
Do note that in the current Android 17 beta, there’s an issue with the glyphs for some controllers. Mishaal notes that even if other glyphs show, the button remapping will work as per the controller definition.
