For those of us who are heavily invested in Sony’s games ecosystem to the point of not considering Nintendo’s excellent Switch for our mobile gaming needs when on the go, Sony has always offered an option. Remote Play, for Sony’s current console generation, the PlayStation 4, has been around on mobile devices for half a decade now.
However, there’s been a catch: it’s only been available to those using Sony’s own Xperia smartphones. That has been quite a bummer considering the insane popularity of Sony’s game console and the disappointing sales numbers of its inhouse smartphone brand quarter-on-quarter (they’re so bad).
Left with not much to do in the way of options available, gamers have been resigned to their fates with those who can afford the Switch (and now the Switch Lite) exploring options and those who simply can’t stay away from their gaming fix having to make do with Remote Play on their laptops or exploring the ever-increasing number of native games available directly on Android.
With update 7.0.0 that is rolling out to the PlayStation 4 worldwide this week, Sony is making amends and finally coming to terms with the sad reality that its devices have been a key hindrance to its mobile reach.
This move comes a few months after Sony started supporting iOS devices – iPhones and iPads – on Remote Play.
With the update, PS4 Remote Play is now possible on all smartphones running Android 5.0 Lollipop or newer versions. All that users need to do is download the PS4 Remote Play application from the Google Play Store.
Now, here is where the problem may arise for those of us who are in places like Kenya that aren’t even accounted for in the PlayStation Network’s regions. Normally, users in Kenya are not able to access PlayStation Mobile applications through the Google Play Store. A handy workaround, which is what will also apply in the case of the PS4 Remote Play app, is to rely on third-party app stores and repositories like APKPure.
DualShock 4 support, finally!
Remember back in February at the height of Android 10 (then referred to as Android Q) rumours when we reported on some code commits that made references to the PlayStation 4’s controller? Well, it turns out, that was really in the mix.
All that one needs in order to use their DualShock 4 controller while engaging in some remote play is to be running Android 10 on their device.
