An open-source app called DroidDeck now lets Android phones run Steam games locally. It does not stream from a PC like Steam Link. It uses ARM64 Proton and x86 translation instead. No root access is needed, and the Android OS doesn’t have to be replaced.
Users have to turn off Android’s child-process restrictions before Steam will launch. One tester got it working on a Mangmi Pocket Max after a few minutes, but a simple game called Raft still would not start.
The hardware bar is high, so it won’t work on all types of Android devices. DroidDeck requires Android 9 or newer and an Adreno 730 GPU or above, such as the Adreno 8xx line. Adreno 6xx is experimental. Mali, Xclipse, PowerVR, and Adreno 710 are unsupported. Most mid-range phones and Google Pixel devices are out.
Storage matters too. The Linux environment takes about 3GB, plus another 1.1GB for a desktop and emulators. That’s on top of the huge file sizes of PC games that you might want to play.
PC games were built for big screens, so device screen support varies. Some don’t handle 20:9 or 19.5:9 ratios, or densities above 300 DPI. Text can end up tiny or cut off depending on multiple variables.
Touch controls are often missing, so a controller or keyboard and mouse may be required.
Early users reported performance about 5% to 10% below native, with slightly more input lag. Even so, many find the results impressive for an early build.
Steam Link streams from another PC. DroidDeck makes the phone do the work. That means no network dependency, but the phone’s chip has to carry the load. As a result, it consumes a lot of battery and generates a lot of heat.
DroidDeck is open source on GitHub and still in early development. You can check out the official repository here.