TL;DR
- Stadia controllers feature a Tandem Mode that supported a second, wired USB gamepad.
- Tandem Mode still works after converting Stadia controllers to Bluetooth.
- By removing all the gamepad hardware, the circuit board can be used as a USB to Bluetooth adapter.
In 2026, Stadia is well and truly dead. Google’s ambitious game-streaming platform announced plans to shut down in mid-2022, and in early 2023 the servers finally went offline. For the past few years, ex-users have at least been able to salvage their old Stadia gamepads by flashing new firmware that allows them to connect over Bluetooth — but Google has now stopped making that available. If you’ve got any Stadia gamepads collecting dust, we’ve spotted a pretty cool DIY project that might just appeal to a lot of retro gamers.
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As you probably remember, Stadia controllers were originally designed to communicate directly with Google’s servers over Wi-Fi. And while that was great for reducing latency, it meant that you couldn’t just pick up any old controller you had lying around if you wanted a friend to join you for a local game.
Google came up with a bit of a solution, though, in the form of Stadia’s Tandem Mode. The idea was that you could attach a second controller to the Stadia gamepad’s USB-C port, and use that for input. How this actually worked was a little wonky in practice: Games only saw a single controller attached, and buttons pressed on either controller still registered, so this was only really useful for games designed for multiple users to share one pad. Still, it was better than nothing.
Jump forward to 2026, and now Tandem Mode is getting some fresh attention. Over on YouTube, the Bringus Studios channel shares a project that uses Tandem Mode to transform an unwanted Stadia gamepad into an adapter that allows you to use wired USB gamepads as Bluetooth controllers.
Even after converting a Stadia controller to Bluetooth operation, Tandem Mode is still supported. But rather than using it to support two players at once, this project essentially removes almost all of the original Stadia gamepad buttons (we still need Home to turn it on), leaving you with a battery-powered Bluetooth adapter ready to accept USB input.
While the process of extracting the circuit boards and battery from the Stadia gamepad is straightforward enough, there are a few tricky bits along the way. If you were to just remove the gamepad’s analog thumbsticks, the controller would erroneously read that as input, so you need to solder some resistors in their place in order to zero things out. But after just a little work, you’ve got a nice new way to use old USB gamepads as Bluetooth controllers.
The video tries out quite a few different gamepads to see what works and what doesn’t, even experimenting with USB hubs attached to the box. Google has its own list of Xbox and PlayStation controllers supported, and it looks like compatibility here is reasonably good.
Considering how aggressively Google worked to get Stadia controllers into the hands of gamers back in the day, there’s a fair chance you might have a spare (or two) lying around. Why not give this project a shot and breathe some new life into those relics?
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