Something you may not know about your Android phone is that it can likely connect to a gaming controller that wasn't designed for it. There are hundreds of different gaming controllers on the market from dozens of different peripheral makers, and not all of them will work with your Android device out-of-the-box. Google has slowly added support for more controllers in Android over the years, though. The first Android 11 Beta was just released and we found 84 new controller mappings for Xbox, Razer, PDP, Mad Catz, and other gaming controllers.

We've seen Google bring more support for controllers in recent versions of Android. Android Pie brought controller mapping support for the Xbox One S wireless controller and PlayStation DualShock 4, among others. Controller mapping eventually came to the Xbox Elite Controller (Series 1) over USB and the Nintendo Switch Pro controller. Now, we've spotted an additional 84 new controller mappings that are coming with Android 11.

What exactly is "controller mapping," anyway? Essentially, it's how Android maps the controller's physical buttons to virtual inputs that the OS and games can react to. If you press "A" on the controller, Android's controller mappings will ensure that the "A" translates to the "A" KeyEvent, and so on and so forth. We compiled the below list of new controller mappings based on the presence of new key layout files in Android 11 Beta 1 versus Android 10. Expand the toggle below to see the full list of 84 new controllers.

We determined that these controllers are now supported based on the key layout files in the Android 11 Beta 1 GSI, which is based on the Android Open Source Project. That means that these new controller mappings will be present on all devices running Android 11 and not just Google's own Pixel phones. Android 10 only had around 50 controller mappings, so an additional 84 controllers is a considerable bump in support for third-party gaming controllers. Many controllers made for mobile devices simply use a generic mapping layout, but now many controllers that aren't made specifically for Android should work better in the next Android release. This is exciting news for anyone who wants to use a controller they already own with their Android device.

Android 11 News on XDA