Google is using web technologies to pair phones to the desktop in novel ways

Feb 27, 2013 15:37 GMT  ·  By

Google is showing off what recent web technologies and its Chrome browser can do these days in a rather fun way, with a multiplayer game designed to be played from mobile devices.

The Chrome Super Sync Sports experiment makes use of several web technologies to enable users to use their phone as controllers of sorts.

"Smartphones and tablets are great for all sorts of games, and lately we've been thinking about new ways to play," Google explained.

"Chrome Super Sync Sports is a new Chrome Experiment that uses the unique features of mobile devices to create a new gaming experience on big and small screens," it added.

"In this game up to four friends can compete in running, swimming and cycling on a shared computer screen, using their smartphones or tablets as game controllers," it said.

Users can play either by themselves, in Chrome for desktop, or they can get more people to join. All they need is a smartphone or tablet with the Chrome browser.

The people who join then get to control their avatar on the big screen using their phones. The crazy video does a good job at explaining how it's all supposed to work.

The game works in Chrome 15 and above, so it should work on anything capable of running Chrome at all, any Android 4.0+ phone or tablet, any iOS device with Chrome, and any computer with Chrome obviously.

The reason why something as old as Chrome 15 is supported is to enable iOS and Android users to join. Chrome 25 is in beta for Android, but the stable version hasn't seen a major update in over a year, since it was introduced in fact.

The other reason why it works on older Chrome versions is because it doesn't really rely on cutting edge technology, unless you consider WebSockets cutting edge.

WebSockets handles the real-time data transfer, the whole thing wouldn't be possible without it, while the graphics are handled by CSS3 and HTML5 Canvas.

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You can use your phone as a controllerFour people can join
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