Frequently asked questions.

Yep. Free and open source. No paid tier, no ads, nothing tracking you, and no plans for any of that.

Two apps. A Dish client on the device holding your controller (Android, Windows, or Linux), and Satellite on the PC you play on. Pair them over Wi-Fi and your controller feels wired. If you already run Sunshine, Apollo, or Wolf, Dish can talk to that host directly instead. Dish for macOS is still in development.

Your controller gets a microphone and a speaker, Dish talks to Sunshine, Apollo, and Wolf hosts directly, Dish for Linux ships, and a plugged-in pad's lights and adaptive triggers follow the game. The what's new page has the full list and a table of what each kind of host can carry.

Nope. Dish is a standalone wireless gamepad. You can run it on its own and control your gaming PC from the couch with zero video streaming. If you do run Sunshine, Apollo, or Wolf, Dish can pair with that host directly and show up there as a controller, no Satellite needed.

Dish runs on Android 7.0 and up, Windows 10/11, and 64-bit Linux desktops including the Steam Deck. Satellite runs on Windows 10/11 and Linux. The Android app is on Google Play and GitHub Releases; everything else is on the downloads page with a checksum on every file.

Your games see a standard Xbox controller, and that's basically every PC game ever made, so they just work. Want the PlayStation touchpad, motion, or lightbar? Choose the PlayStation pad instead and those work too.

Dish is built for your home network. That's how it stays so fast. You can use it across the internet by bridging with a VPN like Tailscale, but expect more lag. It's fine for slow games and noticeable in fast ones.

Yes. Pair a DualSense, Xbox pad, or other controller to your phone over Bluetooth or plug it in over USB, and Dish forwards everything it does (buttons, sticks, triggers, gyro, touchpad, battery) to your PC, where it shows up as a controller your games recognize. Dish for Windows and Dish for Linux do the same for a pad plugged into a desktop.

Yes. Gyro aim and motion work all the way to your game, the same fine-targeting you get on a DualSense or Switch Pro. And if your controller has no gyro, your phone's own tilt can drive it instead, which is great for tilt-aim games.

Yes. Both fingers, swipes, and the touchpad click all reach your game. You can also point the touchpad at the mouse cursor instead, and switch between the two on the fly.

Yes. When a game sets the lightbar color to match what's happening on screen, that color shows on the controller in your hand. Astro's Playroom, GTA V, and Returnal all work.

Yes. When the game shakes the controller, you feel it. On a phone the buzz comes through the phone itself, so your hand feels every hit either way.

Yes. Switch the microphone on for a controller and your phone's microphone becomes the pad's microphone, so voice chat on the PC hears you the way it would through a DualSense. The pad's speaker comes back to your phone too. It's off until you turn it on, and muting stops the capture, so nothing leaves your device. Needs Satellite on Windows and a controller emulated as a DualSense or DualShock 4.

Up to 16 on one PC, each its own player. One person dropping out doesn't drag the others down. Four-player couch co-op is the sweet spot, but it'll happily do more.

Steam Link and Moonlight forward inputs from the same device that's receiving the video. Dish splits the two apart. Your phone is the controller, your TV is the screen, and the controller doesn't need any streaming software at all.

Not noticeably. Between button presses Dish sits almost idle. In testing it sips less battery than a Bluetooth audio call.

Yes. You pair with a short-lived 4-digit code, and after that your inputs are private to your two devices. Nobody else on the network can read them or sneak inputs into your game. See the security page for the full picture.

Automatically. Open Dish and your gaming PC shows up by name, usually in under a second. No IP addresses, no setup.

Yes. Satellite checks for new versions and, if you like, downloads and installs them from inside the app. You stay in control: it's cancellable and skippable. Dish for Windows does the same. Dish for Linux tells you and leaves the install to your package manager.

No ads, no tracking, no account. The only thing any Dish app or Satellite ever sends is an optional crash report, so we can fix crashes. Never your inputs, never which PC you connect to, never your Wi-Fi name. You can turn it off in Settings with one tap. The full privacy policies are on this site.

It's a nod to Sunshine and Moonlight. Those projects beam video out of your PC; we picked up the broadcasting metaphor on the controller side. Satellite is the receiver on your gaming PC, Dish is the transmitter in your hand. The naming page has the longer story.

Bluetooth adds a bit of lag and hogs the same radio your phone uses for everything else. Wi-Fi is faster and more reliable for this job. That said, Dish can act as a plain Bluetooth gamepad if you specifically want to use your phone with a console or TV box without a PC around.

Yes. The on-screen layout fits your screen, and you can switch between Xbox and PlayStation styles per player. The eight-way d-pad has generous diagonals so you don't fumble inputs.

Every Dish client and the Satellite dashboard come in English, Spanish, German, French, Brazilian Portuguese, and Bosnian out of the box, with more easy to add.

Open an issue on the relevant GitHub repo: dish-android, dish-windows, or dish-linux for the client, Satellite for the PC app. We try to triage within a couple of days. Security issues go to security@tinkernorth.com.

It's in active development, along with Satellite for macOS. We're not putting a public date on it until it's genuinely ready to use. Watch the repos on GitHub or the Dish blog for the announcement.

GitHub Sponsors (recurring) is the most helpful, since steady month-to-month support is what funds the unglamorous costs like code-signing, the Google Play developer fee, and hosting. Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee work great for one-time tips. See the support page. Starring the repos, filing good bug reports, and telling a friend all help too.