Apple is adding native compatibility for Nintendo Switch Pro and Joy-Con drivers to iOS 16. Riley Testut, one of the iOS developers behind AltStore, has discovered compatibility with the new driver in a beta version for iOS 16 developers released yesterday.
The Nintendo Switch Pro controller works “perfectly” according to Testut, and the two Joy-Con drivers are shown as a single device so that applications and games can take advantage. Nat Brown, an engineering manager at Apple, confirmed the compatibility with the new driver and even revealed that there is a clean way to change the operation of Joy-Cons to iOS 16. You can dynamically switch between use the two Joy-Cons as a single controller or two. separate them while holding down the screen capture and home buttons for a few seconds.
Joy-Con support opens up the iPhone and iPad to new games that can take advantage of these drivers, and it will be interesting to see what the developers do here. Apple’s work comes more than a year after the iPhone maker added support for the PS5’s DualSense controller, along with support for the Xbox Series X drivers.
IOS 16 is currently available as a developer preview, with a public beta scheduled for next month and a full release in the fall.