Support

Android

In order to use Phone­Joy on Android you will need to install the Bluez-IME app. Although there are a num­ber of other apps as out­lined fur­ther below on this page, we con­sider Bluez-IME to be the cur­rent base applic­a­tion for Phone­Joy. With Bluez-IME all apps and games shown in the Phone­Joy games sec­tion are offi­cially sup­por­ted and tested by us. No root access is required, and Bluez-IME works with nearly all Android devices.

For advanced users who would like to play addi­tional games we recom­mend using one of the other apps in addi­tion to that of Bluez-IME.

Please note that when you have Bluez-IME or PhoneJoy-IME activ­ated, you won’t be able to use your key­board. Should you use a spe­cial Screen-Lock for your Android device which requires key­board input, please deac­tiv­ate it before installing any of the apps men­tioned in this section.

Gen­eral Install­a­tion Instructions

  • 1.) Down­load Bluez-IME from the Android Market.
  • 2.) Turn on your Phone­joy. The green LED next to the switch should start to blink. (If this Phone­joy was already once paired with your mobile device you can skip steps 4 – 7).
  • 3.) Go to Settings>Language & Key­board and make a tick at the Bluez-IME field.
  • 4.) If this is your first time pair­ing your Phone­joy, go to Bluetooth set­tings (Set­tings > Wire­less and net­works > Bluetooth set­tings) of your mobile device and activ­ate Bluetooth.
  • 5.) Scan for devices.

    6.) Choose Phone­joy as soon as it pops up on the ‘Found devices’ list.

  • 7.) To pair Phone­joy with your Android device you should enter the pin now into the popped up win­dow. The pin is 1234.
  • Your mobile device is now paired with Phone­joy and steps Nr. 4 – 7 won’t be neces­sary next time.
  • 8.) Enter the Bluez-IME Set­tings, make sure Bluetooth is activated.
  • 9.) In the Select device field you select Phonejoy.
  • 10.) Select Bluez-IME as input method (IME).
    Your Phone­Joy should now be fully con­nec­ted to your device as indic­ated by the green LED.

Bluez-IME – Stand­ard Key Profile

After you have installed Bluez-IME and suc­cess­fully paired your Phone­joy. We recom­mend the fol­low­ing pro­file for your Android phone’s default setup on Bluez-IME. This pro­file will ensure com­pat­ib­il­ity with nearly all Phone­joy sup­por­ted games. Do not worry, after you have down­loaded Bluez-IME this should be already set as your default pro­file. So usu­ally no fur­ther setup will be neces­sary. Should a game require a spe­cial key con­fig­ur­a­tion you will need to cre­ate a new pro­file how­ever and make the required adjust­ments. We have provided you with an example with GTA III.

 

Which app should I use?

Phone­Joy is sup­por­ted by a broad range of gamepad apps on Android. There’s no single best app for all applic­a­tions. How­ever, we do recom­mend first-time Phone­Joy users to first start out with Bluez-IME as it is rel­at­ively easy to set up and works out of the box for almost all games lis­ted in the Android games sec­tion. We cer­tainly do not think that unless you have rooted your device any of the other three apps hold valid uses for you, unless you really value key mac­ros and a vir­tual key­board, which the Game Key­board both supports.

If you have a rooted device, then of course you should def­in­itely take a look at three apps. Both, the USB/BT Joy­Stick Cen­ter and the GameKey­board allow you to emu­late touch input, which increases the num­ber of games you can use Phone­Joy with man­i­fold. So this is one of the greatest fea­ture enhance­ments for Phone­Joy right there.

The Gamepad Ena­bler is prob­ably the easi­est of the three to setup, as all you need is a fully set-up Bluez-IME, and then you can basic­ally go ahead and use it. How­ever, it’s only fea­ture really is the emu­la­tion of HID gamepads, which allows you out of the box ana­log sup­port for a num­ber of games. We expect more HID gamepad sup­por­ted games to emerge in the com­ing months though, so this is an app def­in­itely with its own use.

The USB/BT Joy­Stick Cen­ter cer­tainly has got the best func­tion­al­ity and is fre­quently updated. How­ever, it requires Android 3.2+ and it’s user inter­face has been optim­ized for tab­lets so it is cer­tainly not as easy to use on a phone as on a tablet.

The GameKey­board on the other hand offers some other great fea­tures (key mac­ros & vir­tual key­board), has a stand­ard UI and only requires Android 2.2+ and Bluez-IME, plus it’s almost half the price of the USB/BT Gamepad Center.

We offer guides for all of them in our know­ledge base, and we advise you to check out the tutori­als we have provided if you want to use them with PhoneJoy.

  Bluez-IME Gamepad Ena­bler Game Key­board USB/BT Joy­Stick Center
Min. Android req. 2.2+ 2.2+ 2.2+ 3.2+
Root req. No Yes No / Yes, for touch emulation. No / Yes, for touch emulation.
Needs Bluez-IME - Yes Yes No
Ease of use ★★★★☆ ★★★★★ ★★★☆☆ ★★☆☆☆
Func­tion­al­ity ★★★★☆ ★★☆☆☆ ★★★★☆ ★★★★★
Keymap­ping Yes No Yes Yes
Touch Emu­la­tion No No Yes Yes, with Joy2Touch Addon.
HID Gamepad Emulation No Yes No No
Key Mac­ros No No Yes No
Vir­tual Keyboard No No Yes No
Mouse Emu­la­tion No No No Yes
Price Free $1.22 $2.49 $4.79