How To Use And Setup Steam Remote Play

Steam Remote Play has been around yet a lot of gamers are still confused on how it works. In this brief guide, we’ll try to show you how this great feature works and what you can do to use it.

We’ll provide the steps on how to use both Remote Play Anywhere and Remote Play Together.

Remote Play Anywhere makes use of a separate Steam Link app, which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. If you have a Raspberry Pi device, you’ll be pleased to know that this app is also supported.

What is Steam Remote Play?

Steam Remote Play is an interesting feature in Steam application that allows a user to play a game from a remote computer to another Steam-enabled device. You can either play a Steam game via Remote Play on another computer, or on your mobile device or tablet.

With Steam Remote Play, you can invite friends to play your games even when they themselves don’t own the games or have these games installed on their computer, mobile device, or tablet.

If you want to play on a mobile device using Steam Remote Play, you need to install the Steam Link app.

What are the requirements for Steam Remote Play?

In order to successfully set up Steam Remote Play, you’re going to need a number of things. Let’s discuss each of them briefly.

You must own the Steam game.

Not every game on Steam supports Remote Play so you must make sure that the game you want to share with your friends allows this feature. Obviously, you must also have ownership of the game, which means that you should have paid for the game (unless it’s a free-to-play).

Good working remote computer.

If you are the one hosting the game or inviting other friends to join you for a remote play, you must make sure that your PC can handle the game and your graphics card supports hardware encoding. All NVIDIA GPUs starting from GTX 650 and newer support hardware encoding.

If your GPU has a hardware encoding feature, you also must make sure that you enable hardware encoding in your Steam application.

To do that, simply open the Advanced host options and check “Enable hardware encoding.“

Decent internet connection.

In order to avoid experiencing lag or delay, you want to make sure that your internet connection speed is stable and fast enough (at least 10 Mbps).

While some players have tried using Steam Remote Play with a slower connection speed, experience may vary and there’s a higher chance of lag or delay.

Wired connection.

As much as possible, you want to make sure that both remote computer hosting the game and the other computer that tries to launch it are connected to the router by a LAN cable. Wireless connection is less reliable than a wired setup.

How to know which games allow Remote Play?

In order to tell if a game supports Remote Play, you need to check its Steam Store page like this one from Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI:

zzSWexRjchIYD04LKV4IDHKwrF8966hFVrg86WT2J2tiVUCyMM7llAxEKCOWQcUtPRWELQb9vACdQJLqzHnKr3j5JuABnwcitWkjfU4iNxqbr1

As you can see, Civilization 6 Steam version supports both Remote Play on Tablet and Remote Play Together. This means that it can be accessed in a Steam enabled mobile device (smartphone or tablet with Steam Link app) or in another computer via Remote Play Together.

How to use and set up Steam Remote Play?

It’s easy to use Steam Remote Play. Depending on the device type you’re planning to use, you either have to use the Steam Link app or Remote Play Together feature.

Remote Play Anywhere

You can continue to play your favorite game anywhere using your smartphone or tablet as long as it’s linked properly to your remote computer that hosts the game. So, for example, if you are away from home but want to play a Steam game, all you have to do is to link your phone to your computer (must be done ahead of time), use the Steam Link app, and from there, play the game.

These are the steps that you must do to make that happen:

On your computer (host device), log in to the Steam application. This must be the computer where the game is installed.
On your mobile device (smartphone or tablet with a Steam Link app installed) or computer, you can launch the game and started playing.

If you need assistance on where to download the Steam Link app and how to set it up, follow this link: https://store.steampowered.com/steamlink/about

Remote Play Together

If you want to play together with your friends who do not have the copy of the Steam game you have, you can use the Remote Play Together feature. Here’s what you must do:

On your computer, open the Steam game you want.
On your friend’s computer or supported mobile device, he or she must be logged in to Steam.
On your computer, open your Steam Overlay in-game by pressing Shift+Tab.
Find the name of your friend from your friends list, then select Remote Play Together.
Once your friend accepts the invite, they will be in-game with you.

How To Use And Setup Steam Remote Play | NEW in 2024!