Google Play Games on PC finally supports remappable keyboard controls

• Google Play Games for PC beta now supports remappable keyboard controls.

• More control options are planned for the future.

• The recent update also added the ability to choose your framerate on a game-by-game basis.

Thanks to emulators like Bluestacks, Android games have been playable on PC for some time. Of course, Amazon dipped its toe into Android games on PC with support for the Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 , but that support is ending on March 5th, leaving Google's Play Games for PC beta as an official option to play Android games on PC, and thanks to a recent update users can now take advantage of programmable keyboard controls in their Android games with a new remapping tool.

Google Play Games for PC beta finally supports remappable keyboard controls

And more control options are planned for the future

The snipped above is the changelog for the recent Google Play Games for PC beta update, which brought with it remappable keyboard controls that are easily accessed by tapping on both your Shift and Tab keys. Once you pull up the menu, click on Remap Controls, which will bring you to a new screen where you can set how your keyboard keys function in the game. While Google Play Games for PC only offers Android games that work with keyboard and mouse controls, this new keyboard remapping tool opens the door to keyboard-only controls, removing the need for a mouse.

It's worth keeping in mind that these new keyboard settings appear to be game-dependent, meaning the options for what you can change differ from game to game. In Turnip Boy Commnits Tax Evasion, the keyboard is already mapped for WASD directional controls, so don't need to be remapped. Then there are games like Eyes: The Horror Game that allow you to remap your keys to everything from directional controls to action buttons ( per Android Authority ), and you can customize the name of each key, along with the size of the button. Best of all, you can save your settings so you can easily jump back into a game without having to redo your keyboard controls.

While the Google Play Games for PC beta has offered the ability to change a game's resolution since 2023, the most recent update added the ability to choose your framerate on a game-by-game basis. So, say there is a title that is too demanding at 120Hz; the ability to drop to a locked 60FPS will easily save you some headroom and perhaps improve your overall game performance. It's a standard setting when gaming on PC, especially with handhelds like the ROG Ally X , so it's nice to see Google supporting gaming-centric features like a tuneable framerate.

These new features are available in the Google Play Games for PC beta as of January's update and are easily welcome additions to the platform. Of course, there are still issues to contend with, which is why the app is still in beta, like being forced to turn on virtualization just to use the application, something that often has to be done in the bios, that is, if your bios and chipset even support virtualization. Google clearly has a few more hurdles to solve before Google Play Games for PC leaves beta, but at the very least, programmable keyboard controls and adjustable framerate support are a step in the right direction.

So, if you'd like to see what's new for yourself, go ahead and install the latest version of Google Play Games for PC beta from the widget below.

Google Play Games for PC

The Google Play Games for PC beta is a virtualization tool that makes it easy to play Android games on a PC, with plenty of features to facilitate a worthwhile experience, from programmable controls to framerate and resolution preferences.