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Samsung releases slightly-tweaked Steam Link for Galaxy app
- Steam Link for Galaxy is the same as the regular Steam Link Android app, but slightly tweaked.
- The two major changes are the app requiring you to connect a Bluetooth controller and some UI enhancements.
- Steam Link for Galaxy is available for all Samsung flagships released after the Galaxy S7 (except for the Note 7).
Back in May, Valve released the beta version of the Steam Link app for Android, which enables you to stream Steam games to your Android device (check out our in-depth review here). However, those of you with Samsung flagship phones now have your own unique version of the Steam Link app called, appropriately, Steam Link for Galaxy.
As you might expect, to get Steam Link for Galaxy you’ll need to download it from the Galaxy Apps store. If you search for it on the Google Play Store, you’ll only find the regular Steam Link version.
There are two significant caveats to using Steam Link for Galaxy. The first is that to see the app in the Galaxy Apps store, you’ll have to be using a Samsung flagship device released in 2016 or later. That specifically means any flagship Galaxy S or Galaxy Note device from the Samsung Galaxy S7 up to the most recent Samsung Galaxy S9 (with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 being the notable exception).
The other caveat is that this only works for users in the United States and South Korea. For now, this appears to be a hard rule, as even a VPN doesn’t seem to bypass the limitation, according to SamMobile. Yes, you could sideload the APK from APKMirror onto your device, but this would require you to sideload for every future update, which could get annoying.
Besides, not too much is different with the Samsungified version of the Steam Link app. The most notable difference is that when you open the app, it will not let you proceed unless you have a Bluetooth controller connected. The vanilla Steam Link app doesn’t limit users in this way.
The only other change is that the user interface is slightly different. It retains the overall feel of the regular Steam Link app but looks a bit nicer.
Since the Steam Link app itself is a beta version, it’s interesting that Samsung created its own port of an in-development app. Perhaps going forward there will be more enhancements to Steam Link for Galaxy that make the app standout more from the one that any other Android user could download from the Play Store.
Click the button below to download the Steam Link for Galaxy app (you must be on a supported Samsung device for the link to work). If you’re not, use the Play Store link instead.