Google has officially started to roll out its Stadia 3.38 to its Android devices via the Play Store, and this time in the new update Google has provided something called the “playability tips” to help improve users connection, along with a hint at deeper support for the Stadia Controller in the Android TV app.
Playability tips
As we know, the only and the biggest downside with Stadia and any other cloud gaming service, in general, is the requirement for a stable, high-speed internet connection. Those who are tech-savvy likely already know some of the best ways to keep a solid connection while playing games on Stadia.
But for those who don’t know how to fair against this problem, Stadia 3.38 includes the beginnings of something called “Playability Tips.” It’s not clear where these will be shown, whether as a new help menu, but the tips are shown when users’ connection is noticeably unstable, or as advice given to first-time Stadia players.
For now, the tips are relatively simple things that every Stadia player should know to maximize their connection quality.
Ethernet is more stable than Wi-Fi
Switch to Ethernet if you can
Switch to 5 GHz Wi-Fi
This router setting can improve gameplay
another interesting feature that has popped up along with Stadia 3.38 is a new internal feature flag, which appears to be for the Android TV app. While there’s no other information attached with it, the name of the flag alone speaks volumes.
enableGothamInputOnAtvPlatformUi
“Gotham” is the codename for WiFi-based input for Stadia, it is actually from the Stadia Controller but also the recently launched Phone Link. Stadia’s Android TV app currently has the limitation that the Stadia Controller can only control certain parts of the app like navigating your library and playing games.
For now, it seems that it will take quite some time before the Stadia Controller will be able to work outside of the Stadia app, simply because that would likely require a significant amount of work to Android TV itself.