How to Connect your PS4 Controller to iPhone & iPad

Mobile platforms have become viable gaming machines in the past couple years. A lot of that has not only been due to things like streaming platforms (or remote play from consoles), but universal support for controllers. It took ages, but iOS devices finally support Bluetooth controllers like those from Microsoft and Sony. There’s native support for DualShock 4 pads, which are plug-and-play for a growing library of games. So if you’re jumping into this space for the first time, here’s how to connect your PS4 controller to iPhone and iPad.

How to Connect your PS4 Controller to iPhone & iPad

It’s just Bluetooth, yo. Do you have wireless headphones, have you used a portable speaker, have you, I dunno, used weird shit like a remote app for your TV? It’s the same thing for your PS4 controllers. In order to connect your iOS device of choice to your DualShock 4, simply put the controller into pairing mode, open the Bluetooth settings on your device, and click on the name of said device to complete the pairing. Then you can play your favorite games like Fortnite… well, maybe not that one. You can play whatever you trip over on Apple Arcade with your console-tier controller.

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To get more specific, open up the Settings app in your iOS device. Find the Bluetooth navigation bar-slash-toggle switch. Now grab your DualShock 4 controller and hold down the “Share” and “PS” buttons. Eventually the controller should start blinking or whatever. Give it a minute, and the option “DualShock 4” should appear in the “Other Devices” section of that Bluetooth menu. Unless you turned your phone off when you grabbed your controller, but why would you do that? Tap the device’s name then the magic should happen.

From there, don’t expect to use the controller to navigate your iOS software. You still need your fingers, so hopefully you haven’t ripped open that back of dusty chips yet. Relax. Pick your game and hopefully it’ll natively respond to your controller, but some games still require touch operation through menus and whatnot. It’s kind of up to the individual games at this point. Good luck!

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If you enjoy yourself, we recommend, at the very least, getting yourself a mount. You clip it over the controller, and it’ll hold your phone up for you like a Frankenstein’s Monster version of a Game Boy. We also recommend investing in a mobile-specific controller like a Backbone, but that’s a decision for later.