Controller:Joy-Con

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Switch Joy-Con

XInput support
Connection method
Bluetooth
Predecessor
Wii Remote Wii U GamePad

The Joy-Con are a pair of game controllers released by Nintendo on March 3, 2017. They were released alongside the Nintendo Switch console.

Unlike the Wii Remote and Wii U GamePad which are single controllers, the Joy-Con comes in a pair, designated as "Joy-Con L" and "Joy-Con R" respectively, with each containing 6 face buttons, 2 rail buttons, a shoulder button, a digital trigger and a clickable joystick. The Joy-Con has haptic feedback motors built into them to provide the HD Rumble functionality. The right Joy-Con has NFC reader, used to reads the Amiibo on the Swtich console. The controllers were powered by the built-in, non-removable lithium-ion batteries. The Joy-Con were designed to be attached to the Nintendo Switch's sides via rails in Handheld mode, though they can be separated from the console in Docked mode.

The Joy-Con has been available in a wide variety of colors. The default color models are Gray/Gray, Neon Blue/Neon Red and White/White.

The Joy-Con are the generic DirectInput controllers, so they are not supported by games that use the XInput API unless XInput wrappers like Steam Input are used. Some wrappers can expose additional features such as gyroscope. Currently, only standard rumble is supported and NFC reader support is still in the work. The Joy-Con must be connected wirelessly through Bluetooth connection (Requires host device to support Bluetooch 3.0 and later), and recharging the controllers' batteries requires the Nintendo Switch itself or the optional Joy-Con Charging Dock.

Inputs

• 2 × motion sensing: Accelerometer, Gyroscope
• Infrared sensor (Joy-Con R only)
• 2 × clickable analog sticks: LS or RS
• 2 × digital shoulder buttons: 𝐋 or 𝐑
• 2 × digital triggers: ZL or ZR
• 16 × digital buttons:
  • Joy-Con L: 8 × digital buttons: -, ↑, ↓, ←, →, ⧇ ᴄᴀᴘᴛᴜʀᴇ, SL, SR
  • Joy-Con R: 8 × digital buttons: +, 𝐀, 𝐁, 𝐗, 𝐘, ⌂ ʜᴏᴍᴇ , SL, SR
• Sync button on both controllers: sʏɴᴄ
• NFC (Joy-Con R only)

Availability

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Use with PC platforms

Yuzu emulator has native support for controller (Ryujinx has only single controller support).

Windows

A vJoy feeder / Driver for the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons and Pro Controller on Windows with analog stick support and motion controls.

Custom application reWASD allows Nintendo Joy-Con to work as a pair or separately and works on Windows 7 or newer. Software gives advanced customization options an lets remap whole controller eg. reassigning buttons to keyboard or mouse actions, macros, activate custom modes etc.

XJoy allows to use Nintendo Switch JoyCons as a virtual Xbox 360 controller.

BetterJoy allows to be used with CEMU, Citra, Dolphin, Yuzu and as generic XInput. It also allows using the gyro to control mouse and remap the special buttons (SL, SR, Capture) to key bindings of your choice.

Supported features	reWASD	DS4Windows	JoyShockMapper	Steam	DSAdvance	WiinUPro	Gamepad Phoenix
Virtual Xbox controller emulation	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Virtual Nintendo controller emulation	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
Joined/Split Mode	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗
HD Haptic Feedback	~	~	~	~	~	~	✗
Motion Control	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗
LEDs	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
IR	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
NFC	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
Dead-zone adjustment	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Multiple controllers	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✓
Virtual DualShock emulation	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗
Keyboard & Mouse input emulation	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗
Retro DInput/WinMM compatibility	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓
Flick Stick	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗
Cemuhook's UDP protocol	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗

XInput wrapping

Being a DirectInput controller, it's possible to use any of the generic wrappers. See the controller article for those.

reWASD

Does not require manual driver installment.

Allows remapping Joy-Con controllers separately or in pair making them work like one controller.

Supports motion control via gyro.

Can emulate the DualShock 4 to play PS4 Remote Play, PS Now or Dualshock 4 compatible games. Including gyro control.

Can emulate the Xbox 360 controller to play XInput compatible games.

Not free of charge. 14-days trial.

Custom configs for Joy-Cons can be found in official Community Configs Library maintained by reWASD users.

Joy-Con Toolkit

Allows change colors of Joy-Con and Pro Controller (plus left/right grip) and save custom colors profiles for future use.

Allows use the NFC to check type and UID.

Allows use the IR stream or capture and save photos.

Allows temperature reading. Check the current Joy-Con or the ambient temperature after letting it for some minutes.

Allows edit user calibration for analog sticks.

Allows full test controls. Test buttons, analog sticks, motion controls, complete with calibration.

Allows capture traffic between the controller and the PC into a log file.

Allows backup SPI flash. Allows restore from a backup: restore colors, S/N, Calibration, Full restore.

Allows view S/N, FW Version, MAC address and Battery and change S/N.

• If you didn't do a valid backup and you lost your S/N, you are the only responsible! If for whatever reason you lost it, check the plastic slivers that your Joy-Con were wrapped inside the retail box.

Allows debug - Send Custom Commands. Send Vibrations, set player and HOME leds, etc, and see their reply.

• Only for users that know what they are doing. Users are the only responsible.

Easter Egg: Play 2 Mario themes through Joy-Con HD Rumble.

DS4Windows

Because the ZR and ZL are buttons and not triggers it may be difficult to play games that make use of analog triggers.

Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR or higher required for wireless connection.

Motion sensors are supported.

Can be used in joined or split mode.

LEDs cannot be controlled.

HD Rumble not used. Rumble acts as common one.

NFC not supported.

DSAdvance

Xbox controller emulation support.

A gyroscope and various modes of its operation are supported - mouse emulation and driving.

Easy to use, minimum settings

Chrome OS

This controller is "Plug and Play" on Chrome OS.

User can pair both controllers, or just one, and use the buttons on the inside of the Joy-Con.

Steam

Controller can be found in Supported Controller Database and it's correctly recognizable as Nintendo Switch Joy-Con.

Full support of Steam Input including gyroscope and motion controls.

User can toggle "Use Nintendo Button Layout" option depending on whether they prefer the 𝗔𝗕𝗫𝗬 buttons to be mapped as they are on the Pro Controller or to be mapped like it's an Xbox One controller.

While user can map the controllers natively in Steam, the left and right controllers cannot be used separately.

Steam Link compatibility

Works via Bluetooth. Includes gyroscope and motion controls.

Works without any drivers on any operating system that supports Steam.

Can be used just to send input from a controller to a PC. Go into Streaming options, hit 𝗫 and disable video and audio streaming.

Needs remapping.

Won't work great unless the streaming device is connected to LAN or a low latency Wi-Fi.

Hardware

Cronus Zen Adapter

Cronus Zen allows the use of licensed gaming controller on all major gaming platforms, including all versions of PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, Windows PC, Android, Raspberry Pi.

Supports mods, scripts and macros.

Integrated Bluetooth.

ConsoleTuner Titan Two Adapter

Titan Two is an all-in-one gaming device that combines features of dozens of products in a single form factor. Supports PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation TV, Xbox 360, Computers and more...

Customize the controller layout according to user's needs for any game.

Support in games

Supported natively by a growing list of games, allowing the use of the controller and some/all of it supplementary features without any additional software installed.

Support for some controller features may be only available on certain systems. Refer to game-specific articles for details.

Games with motion control support

For a list of games, see List of games that support tracked motion controllers in non-VR gameplay.

Each Joy-Con contains an accelerometer and gyroscope, which can be used for motion tracking.

Games can support using the Joy-Con for pointing controls similar to the Wii Remote while detached without the need of a sensor bar.

Thanks to JoyShockMapper, Steam Input, reWASD application, gyro control can be remapped to mouse or right stick in any game.

Number of games which natively support motion controls is limited and gyro support is still not a PC standard.

Games with IR sensor support

Joy-Con Toolkit demonstrates how the Infrared sensor can be used on PC. Resident Evil Revelations 1 & 2 on Switch are using IR sensor to reload gun. See more.

Joy-Con R contains an infrared depth tracking sensor, which can read objects and motions held in front of it; as an example of its functionality, Nintendo stated that the sensor could distinguish between the hand shapes of rock–paper–scissors.

IR camera resolution can be set from 30x40, 60x80, 120x160 to 240x320.

Supports two different angles: Far/Narrow 75° and Near/Wide 130°.

IR sensor support for PC games is still in development stage. See more.

Nintendo consoles are using IR sensors which can be emulated on PC. See List of Game Boy Color games with IR support

Games with NFC support

Joy-Con Toolkit demonstrates how the NFC reader can be used on PC. NFC objects can be used to execute combos like activating cheats, changing game configuration or performing advanced combos like fatalities in Mortal Kombat games.

Joy-Con R contains a near-field communication reader mostly used with Amiibo.

NFC reader support for PC games is still in development stage. See more.

See List of video games using NFC.

Games with HD haptic feedback support

For a list of games, see List of games that support HD haptic feedback.

HD Rumble is an extra level of immersion by letting feel a wide variety of sensations through Joy-Cons and Switch Pro Controller vibrations. DualSense's haptic feedback was designed by same company as Switch's HD Rumble technology - Immersion Corporation.

Joy-Con Toolkit has HD Rumble Player feature to play different vibrations patterns.

Switch emulator Yuzu supports HD Rumble.

There is no software which allows to translate DualSense's haptic feedback vibrations into HD Rumble yet.

PC games do not support natively HD Rumble feature yet.

Games with Nintendo button prompts

List of games with Nintendo button prompts

Other information

Technical information

Device name: Joy-Con L, HWID: 057E:2006

Controller button	Button label and axis
L	Button 5
ZL	Button 7
-	Button 9
SL	Button 15
SR	Button 16
Left stick (LS)	Button 11, X-axis, Y-axis
Capture	Button 14
D-pad up	POV up
D-pad down	POV down
D-pad left	POV left
D-pad right	POV right

Device name: Joy-Con R, HWID: 057E:2007

Controller button	Button label and axis
A	Button 2
B	Button 1
X	Button 4
Y	Button 3
R	Button 6
ZR	Button 8
+	Button 10
SL	Button 17
SR	Button 18
Right stick (RS)	Button 12, X-rotation, Y-rotation
Home	Button 13