Ordinary tilt steering works well for arcade racing, but truck, bus and simulator games expect something different: a wheel that turns two and a half times from one end to the other. You cannot get that by tilting a phone in your hands, because your wrists run out of travel after a quarter turn. Wheel mode solves this by changing how you hold the phone. You mount it and rotate it, like a real steering wheel.
Why a bigger tilt number would not work
It might seem enough to raise the sensitivity range to 900 degrees. It is not, and this is worth understanding. In tilt steering the number is how far you must tilt the phone to reach full lock. At 900 degrees you would need to tilt the phone 900 degrees, which no person can do, so the truck would barely turn. Real multi-turn steering needs the phone to actually rotate through multiple turns, and it needs the app to keep count of how many turns you have made. That is what wheel mode does.
What you need
- A phone mount or wheel holder that lets the phone rotate around its centre, such as a steering-wheel-style phone holder or a desk mount that turns freely.
- A racing, truck or bus game that supports a controller and steers with the left stick. Most do.
- Ideally a USB connection, since steering is continuous and a cable keeps timing steady. See connecting over USB.
Turn it on
- Open the app's settings and switch on Tilt steering.
- Switch on Wheel mode, described in the app as "for a mounted phone you turn like a steering wheel".
- Choose a Lock-to-lock range: 360, 540, 720 or 900 degrees.
- Mount the phone, then press CALIBRATE with the wheel pointing straight ahead.
Choosing a range
The range is the total rotation from full left lock to full right lock. Half of it is available in each direction. At 900 degrees you get 450 degrees each way, which is one and a quarter turns left and one and a quarter turns right.
| Range | Each way | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| 360° | 180° | Fast cars and arcade handling in a mount |
| 540° | 270° | Everyday road cars |
| 720° | 360° | Buses, vans and heavier vehicles |
| 900° | 450° | Trucks and sim wheels. This is the default |
Many games let you set the wheel rotation of a vehicle, or have it follow the controller directly. Match the in-game setting to the range you choose in the app, or the on-screen wheel will not line up with your hands. If a game has its own steering sensitivity or "linearity" option, leave it at the default first.
How to mount the phone
The app's own guidance is to keep the phone mounted upright or tilted, never flat. Wheel mode measures where gravity points across the face of the phone, which tells it how far the phone has turned. When the phone lies flat, gravity points straight through the screen and there is no direction to measure. Keep the screen facing you, like a real wheel.
While wheel mode is on, the screen orientation stays locked. That is deliberate: if the screen could flip between landscape directions as you turn the wheel, the steering would swap sides in the middle of a corner.
The ROTATE button
Because the orientation is locked, you need a way to choose which way round the phone sits in the mount. The ROTATE button, shown only while wheel mode is on, flips the screen between the two landscape directions. It also resets the turn count, since changing the direction invalidates any turns the app had counted. Press it once if the phone is upside down in your mount, then press CALIBRATE with the wheel straight.
Feeling the full turns
The app's vibration setting also gives a bump feedback as you pass full turns, which helps you feel where straight-ahead is without looking at the phone. Keep it on while you learn the wheel.
Dead zone and straight-line driving
The Ignore small tilts option still applies. A few degrees of dead zone stops a heavy truck from wandering on the motorway because of tiny hand movements. Start at 2 or 3 degrees and adjust.
Troubleshooting wheel mode
- The steering is reversed. Press ROTATE to flip the landscape direction, then calibrate again.
- Full lock arrives too soon or too late. Change the range, and check the vehicle's wheel rotation setting in the game.
- The centre has drifted. Hold the wheel straight and press CALIBRATE. It is always safe to recalibrate between drives.
- It feels slightly behind. Use a cable. Over Wi-Fi, check the advice in reducing input lag.
- The pedals. Wheel mode only steers. Build pedals into your layout with the layout builder. A trigger widget set to analog Throttle makes a good accelerator and brake, because your finger position sets the pull from 0 to 100 percent.
Do you need it?
If you play arcade racers, ordinary tilt steering is simpler and needs no mount. Wheel mode is for players who want the real turning motion of a truck or bus simulator and are happy to mount the phone for it.
Try it yourself. GamepadOS is free to start: download the PC server and the Android app, scan the QR code and play. Stuck? The support center and contact form reach a real person.