How to Set up Google Stadia on IOS Without an App
As you may recall, Apple rules its App Store with an iron fist. And it’s going to be a chilly day in Cupertino before the company allows game streaming services to have regular legacy apps – unless the service sends every streaming game to Apple for review , which it doesn’t. And you can bet Apple would love to get a discount on everything users pay for streaming subscriptions.
To get around this, streaming services look to your web browser anywhere. This is how you can stream Google Stadia to iOS and iPadOS today: via Safari. Well, technically, via a progressive web app that runs on your device without distorting the Safari user interface, giving the illusion that you are using a native iOS or iPadOS app, and Stadia is not really.
How easy is it to set up? It hurts – with one quirk. You can download Google Stadia from the App Store right now. You can install it and use it to access your Stadia account, including the Stadia store, and the app even gives the illusion that you can use it to stream games. This is of course not true, because you get this screen if you try:
Instead, you’ll want to run Safari – and Safari only, since you can’t install PWAs using other browsers like Chrome. Open the Google Stadia website and sign in (if necessary). Click the Share button at the bottom of your browser, and then click Add to Home Screen .
Then you place the Stadia app icon right on your home screen. It will look like this:
I would recommend either uninstalling the original Stadia app or remembering the color of that icon so you don’t get confused if you ever search for “Stadia” on your device and you see two options:
From there, all you have to do is click on the Stadia PWA to launch it in the (not quite) Safari browser. And after that, you can play on Stadia just as if you were using any regular old application.
If you are having any problems with your iPhone or iPad stadiums, know that you must be running iOS / iPadOS 14.3 for the PWA creation process to work, so update your iPhone and / or iPad accordingly. And make sure you have a reliable connection with your Wi-Fi . I would not play Stadia over a cellular network (if you can do it at all) as your data plan will be very unhappy if you do it for too long.
Also, I highly recommend connecting an Xbox or PlayStation controller to your iPhone (via Bluetooth) for gaming. Trying to do something with a virtual interface would be useless — a setup I could use if I were stuck on a desert island with great Wi-Fi and no controller, but that’s about it.
Fortunately, this is easy to do. Just set your Xbox or PlayStation controller to pairing mode, go to Settings> Bluetooth on your iPhone or iPad, wait a bit, and press your controller when it appears. Stadia should immediately recognize him as soon as he is paired and you are ready to play.
And, yes, Stadia has two free-to-play titles if you don’t feel like buying games or signing up for a subscription right away, or otherwise, if you’re unsure of your network or internet connection, it can handle anything that’s streaming. Get your feet wet with Destiny 2 or Super Bomberman R Online, then see if it makes sense to dive deeper into the game streaming service.