When Stadia first launched one of the most exciting prospects of the service was being able to game anywhere on any screen. Unfortunately, at launch, the service was barely available on a handful of screens, including a very limited number of Android phones.
Over the past year, support has grown for Google’s cloud gaming service adding additional Android devices, and now Stadia is finally coming to iOS devices. Starting on December 16, 2020, Stadia Pro and free-tier users can load up their favorite games on an iPhone or iPad using the Safari web browser.
Unlike on Android devices, Stadia cannot currently work on the iPhone or iPad via an app. That is due to Apple’s app store policies, which requires even game streaming services to submit every game as a separate app for approval. Not only is that ridiculous for a game streaming app, but it’s also just not feasible. To get around this limitation, Google had to implement the service in Safari as a web app.
Porting the Stadia web app to iOS was a super fun project, and we’re really happy with how it turned out. Here’s a video I recorded a few months ago demonstrating we could deliver the complete Stadia experience on Safari, even for an extremely timing-sensitive game like Thumper. pic.twitter.com/TNJEdGTwPF
— Justin Uberti (@juberti) December 16, 2020
That explains why it has taken so long for Stadia to make its way to iOS devices, but all you need to know is that you can now open Stadia.com on your iPhone or iPad using Safari and get your game on. You can even add a shortcut to the home screen making Stadia only one tap away.
This year is truly the year that Stadia has evolved into a somewhat viable gaming platform. Initially, Google’s cloud gaming service launched in a barebones state, but it recently celebrated its one year anniversary in November, and it only continues to improve over time.
Most recently, Google ran a promotion giving away free Stadia Premiere bundles with the purchase of Cyberpunk 2077. The promotion was so popular it ended before its original cut off after Google ran out of supplies. Alongside that, Google also enabled the option to live stream to YouTube last week. Plus, this week Ubisoft added support for Ubisoft+ so members can now play 15 of the subscription service’s games on Stadia.