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Your favorite Android apps, now on Steam Deck.

So in my most recent news video, I mentioned that Valve's possibly bringing Android app support to Steam using Waydroid. What could this mean for Deck gamers? Well, let's find out together!

Your favorite Android apps, now on Steam Deck.
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The fact is, this is entirely possible. Android support for Linux desktops isn’t new — we’ve had Waydroid for a long while.

Waydroid is the tech that Valve is actually using with SteamVR to bring Android support to SteamOS. But since we don’t have Valve’s official version of Waydroid for SteamOS, 10-minute Steam Deck Gamer has already done all the hard work to get this working for us. Suffice it to say, Waydroid is incredibly easy to get set up, and it only takes a few steps. So if you want to get Star Wars: Hunters set up on your Steam Deck — or any number of other Android games for that matter — this guide is here to help.

Step 1: Switch to Desktop Mode

Switch over to desktop mode on your Deck. Hit the Steam button, then go down to Power, and select Switch to Desktop.

While it’s not necessary, if you have a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, I recommend setting them up here, as it will make the installation process a bit easier. Again, this is not required — I just think that using a mouse and keyboard is much easier than using the onscreen keyboard.

If you don’t have these available, that’s fine. Whenever you need to type something in, you can use the onscreen keyboard. To bring that up, hold the Steam button and press X.

Step 2: SteamOS Waydroid Installer

Next, open a web browser and use the link in the video description to head over to GitHub. The project we’re going to use is called SteamOS Waydroid Installer, and it handles all of the heavy lifting.

Click on the green Code button and choose Download ZIP. Now let’s extract this archive.

  1. Open up your file manager — on Steam, it’s called Dolphin.
  2. Using the Places section on the left side, select Downloads.
  3. Right-click on the SteamOS-Waydroid-Installer-main.zip file and select Extract -> Extract Archive Here.

Now, open up the new SteamOS-Waydroid-Installer-main directory. Right-click on an empty space and choose Open Terminal Here.

Step 3: Set a SteamOS Password

In the new terminal window, type in:

passwd

Then hit Enter.

  • If you see “Enter current password,” you’ve already completed this step and can skip ahead.
  • If not, you’ll need to type in a new password.

This is your operating system password, so remember it. Also note: as you type, nothing will appear on the screen — this is intentional. Just type and hit Enter. Then type it again to confirm.

Step 4: Install Waydroid

Now type in:

./steamos-waydroid-install.sh

Once you type in ./steamos you can hit Tab twice to autofill the rest of this. Once you see the script name, hit Enter.

This process will ask for the password you just set. Type it in and hit Enter.

Now sit back and relax — the hard part is over. After a few minutes, Waydroid should be installed and ready on your machine.

Step 5: Configuration

It looks like Waydroid is done installing. Let’s open up Steam and find Android-Waydroid-cage.sh in your Library — this is how you launch Waydroid.

After a short boot process, you should see a familiar Android launcher. You can click or tap on the Google Play Store to sign in and download any games you own.

💡
Some titles won’t be compatible with Waydroid, so you may not be able to download or run them.

Some notes on compatibility:

  • Didn’t work: Doom 3 BFG, Fortnite
  • Worked fine: Monument Valley, Fruit Ninja, Deus Ex GO

Many users mentioned Star Wars: Hunters in the comments, so I gave it a spin. It actually works great — except the textures are potato quality. Adjusting settings didn’t help, but it’s still quite playable.

If you know how to improve texture quality in Waydroid, let me know in the comments — I’d love to hear your tips.

Gamepad and Touchscreen Setup

If you’re playing in Desktop Mode:

  • Hold the Start button for 3 seconds to switch the gamepad from mouse & keyboard to controller config.
  • To go back, hold Start again for 3 seconds.

You can also launch Waydroid from Game Mode:

  1. Find Android-Waydroid-cage.sh in your Non-Steam Games section.
  2. Launch it like any other game.

For better controls:

  • Use the stock Gamepad config.
  • Modify the right trackpad to work as a mouse.
  • Set trackpad click to act as a left mouse click.

Enabling touchscreen support in Game Mode:

  1. Go to Controller Settings > Edit > Action Sets.
  2. Hit the gear icon, then select Add Command > Always On.
  3. In the new command, go to the System section and select Touchscreen Native Support.

Now, tapping and dragging work as expected — and multi-touch is fully functional, which is wonderful!

Final Thoughts

So what are my overall thoughts?

Well frankly, Waydroid works great. It’s essentially an Android virtual machine on my Steam Deck with near-native performance — and that makes me unreasonably happy.

That said, beyond a few Android-exclusive games or maybe running streaming apps like Netflix (especially for offline viewing), this isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea.

But if you’ve made it this far, you’re probably the kind of person who’s interested in doing this — so let me know your thoughts in the comments! I'd love to know how you are using Waydroid on your Steam Deck.