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I want to use a gamepad via bluetooth, but I only have a wired Xbox 360 controller. Is there some kind of software I can use to turn my Windows PC into a bluetooth gamepad? I.e. pair a mobile device to my PC and have it send the button presses from the PC to the mobile device over bluetooth.

I know there's software like this for turning a PC into a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so it's probably technically possible, but I'm having a hard time googling software like this. I keep getting google results for how to pair a bluetooth gamepad with a PC, or apps for turning a smartphone into a bluetooth gamepad, which are both, in different ways, the opposite of what I'm looking for.

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Note: I have found no solution to use the PC as a bluetooth game pad. This is all workarounds.

Streaming games from Android to PC

If you have an android device, and you have a game installed on the android device, and you want to control it from the PC... you can use one of many streaming solutions.

Ignoring those that require special hardware, and looking for one with gamepad support leaves us with almost nothing...

However, there is one that can do a workaround: Wondershare MobileGo. Now, it will not present itself as a gamepad to your android device... instead it will allow you to create touch input for a virtual (on screen) gamepad. You can configure the positions for touch input

Set touch input position on screen

Ok, ern... it takes keyboard input, not gamepad input...

I have two alternatives to take gamepad input and turn it into keyboard input for your PC:

Emulating Android on your PC

If you want to play an Android game, you could be able to emulate Android on your PC and play there.

I have a few alternatives for doing that:

Remember that you can use the solutions from the section above to use your gamepad as keyboard.

Streaming games from Xbox to PC

You can use the Xbox app for Windows 10. If you do not have the Xbox app installed, you can find the Xbox app on the Microsoft Store.

The Xbox app has a stream function that will connect to your Xbox One or Xbox 360 on the LAN, and allow you to play on the PC with whatever input devices you have. You will find it on the console icon, second from the bottom on the bar on the left.

I presume you do not want the video output on the PC monitor, hopefully you can connect the desired video output device to your PC, hopefully you do not need adapter hardware (hdmi is pretty common these days).

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  • Thanks, but I don't intend using it for an Xbox, but for a mobile device. I assume your solution works only for Xboxes, not for other devices compatible with bluetooth gamepads. – Raizin May 2 '18 at 22:59
  • @Raizin I was understanding that incorrectly. I have expanded the answer to cover "solutions" for mobile platforms... well, Android. Hope it helps. – Theraot May 3 '18 at 2:15
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I still found no solution for the original request, but I found a workaround that works even better for my situation.

Turns out all I needed was a USB OTG cable, which allows me to connect USB type A cables (i.e. "normal USB cables") to my mobile device. With this I can connect a wired gamepad to my device. Apparently newer devices usually have the necessary drivers already installed, so it's just plug and play.

Here's a page with more info on that.

Be sure the connector you buy is OTG. I bought another micro USB type B <-> USB type A connector at first, which didn't work. A shop assistant later explained that it does work with mice and keyboards but not with gamepads or USB sticks. And of course make sure that you choose the correct type of USB for your device (the older micro USB vs. the new USB C).

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