Google Stadia is finally ready to be untethered from Wi-Fi and played on 4G and 5G mobile connections with most Android devices. It's a feature Google has been working on for months, and it follows other Stadia experiments that enabled touch controls for some games and the widespread rollout of the Stadia app to most Android devices that launched in June. Until now, subscribers could use the game streaming service on Android devices, but only when connected to a stable Wi-Fi connection. Today's news changes that. According to a community blog post about it, Google says that to take part in the latest 4G/5G experience all you have to do is open the Stadia app on an Android phone, select Experiences in your profile. and then choose Use mobile data.
Is it worth streaming over a mobile connection?
Theoretically, streaming over your mobile connection could be a fantastic way to play your collection of Stadia games anywhere, anytime. We're saying theoretically because, on paper at least, 4G and 5G connection speeds exceed Google's recommended connection speeds of 10Mbps for HD gaming. 5G can achieve data speeds several times faster than this speed, according to our 5G speed tests, so Stadia should theoretically work just fine when you're under a 5G tower. The potential downside here is that all those games on the go could hit your mobile data limit, if you have one. Google has warned in the past that using the service can consume between 4.5 and 20 GB of data per hour of reading, so you may want to play outside in moderation. That being said, having the added option to play on the fly is a benefit of the service, and as long as it works well, it can cause some players to give the service another service.