Just in time for Steam on Chromebooks, Xbox Series X controllers will work over Bluetooth

With Borealis, A.K.A. Steam on the horizon for Chromebooks, there will no doubt be many gamers who have Xbox gamepads laying around their house. These controllers are not only used for well, Xbox console, but also for PCs where they are plug and play as opposed to Sony’s Dualshock 4 controllers which require extra software to map to computers.

A new commit on the Chromium Repository first discovered by Android Police directly indicates that Microsoft’s Xbox Series X controller will soon work over Bluetooth using ‘Bluetooth advertisement monitoring‘ on Linux and ChromeOS. Advertisement monitoring allows applications to scan for devices that are advertising using BLE. Currently, this controller can operate only by being tethered or plugged in, but wireless usage is not supported.

Support Xbox Series X Controller on Linux and ChromeOS over Bluetooth

This CL adds support for all buttons and Axis on the Series X Controller on Linux over Bluetooth

Chromium Repository

In addition, the gamepad’s buttons would not be accurate to the actual inputs, but that should change going forward. A standard mappings file for this on the repository shows that each button is linked up properly now – sweet! While I’m a Playstation gamer at heart, I do have my Stadia controller as well, but for anyone hoping to connect their Xbox Series X gamepad and play some Steam games, this is a welcome look into the future of what Google has planned!