How To Use Your Ps4 Without A Controller

Sony's official PlayStation app, bachelor for both Android phones and iPhones, allows you to remotely control your PS4. Employ it as a playback remote or a keyboard for quickly typing without relying on the PS4's controller and on-TV keyboard.

While Nintendo opted to package an unabridged controller with a touchscreen gamepad, both Sony and Microsoft take added a "2nd screen" surround with a smartphone app. It isn't integrated directly into as many games, just it'south withal a useful feature.

Step One: Get the App

These features crave Sony's official PlayStation app, which is bachelor from Apple tree's App Store and Google Play. While the app was originally designed for iPhones and Android smartphones, it now works on iPads and Android tablets, too.

Install the app on your preferred device and launch it. SIgn in with the aforementioned PlayStation Network account you signed into your PS4 with.

Step Two: Connect to your PS4

To use 2d screen features, tap the "Connect to PS4" icon in the app and tap "2d Screen." Bold your smartphone and PlayStation iv are on the same network, your telephone should automatically find your PS4. Tap it to connect. If you don't see the PS4, ensure both devices are on the same network.

After y'all do, you'll be told to go to the Settings > PlayStation App Connection Settings > Add Device menu on your PS4. Yous'll see a code displayed here. Type the code into the app to register your smartphone with your PS4. The Settings > PlayStation App Connectedness Settings screen on your PS4 gives you lot a list of connected devices and allows you to remove them in the hereafter, if yous like.

When yous're done, y'all'll meet that your PS4 is now connected when you tap Connect to PS4 > Second Screen. This screen likewise gives you a power button, assuasive you to quickly put your PS4 into rest mode.

Step Three: Employ Your Smartphone as a Remote

To use your smartphone equally a remote for your PS4, tap Connect to PS4 > Second Screen and and so tap the "Second Screen" button below the PS4'due south name. You'll run into a remote screen with four icons at the superlative of the screen.

RELATED: How to Connect a Mouse and Keyboard to Your PlayStation 4

The first icon allows you to use the app as a "second screen" in a game, if the game supports it. The second icon allows you to swipe and tap on your phone to navigate the console's menus. The third icon gives y'all a keyboard on your smartphone, allowing you to quickly type in text fields. The 4th icon allows yous to view comments from spectators while broadcasting gameplay.

If you find yourself wanting a more than convenient keyboard to type on your PS4 without having to unlock your smartphone first, think that y'all can wirelessly connect a concrete Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to your console.

Some games allow y'all to view a map or inventory screen using the "second screen" function of this app, but near games oasis't bothered implementing this feature. If a game doesn't support this feature, yous'll run into the "This screen is currently not in use" message when you tap the icon first icon from the left.

Use Other PlayStation Features, Fifty-fifty Over the Net

The rest of the app provides a variety of useful other features. These features rely on a connection to Sony's PlayStation Network servers, so they'll work from anywhere–even if your PlayStation four isn't powered on.

The master screen shows you your "What'southward New" feed, live game streams, friends listing, notifications, and other social features unremarkably but accessible through the panel.

Tap "Messages" and you'll be directed to download the separate PlayStation Messages app from Apple's App Store or Google Play, allowing you lot to ship and receive messages with the aforementioned PlayStation messaging service yous'd utilise on your PS4.

Tap the "Store" push and y'all'll be taken to the PlayStation Store on your phone, allowing you lot to browse for games, demos, movies, and Television receiver shows on your phone and buy them. With the default rest mode settings, your PlayStation iv will automatically wake up and download games yous buy, and so get dorsum into residual mode. They should be ready for you to play when you return to your console.

Tap the carte du jour button adjacent to your profile icon and you'll see a menu with more than links, allowing you lot to chop-chop view your profile and trophies or redeem promotional codes. This feature allows you lot to quickly scan codes with your phone's camera or type them in with a keyboard on your telephone, saving you hassle over typing them in with your PS4's controller.

Sony's app provides a variety of useful features, although it certainly isn't indispensable. Simply a handful of games have bothered implementing their ain second-screen functions that employ this app, and developers take occasionally chosen to create their own game-specific companion apps that piece of work across the PS4, Xbox Ane, and PC platforms rather than rely on Sony's.