Is ‘Among Us’ cross-platform? Can mobile players join PC gamers?
InnerSloth LLCs’ Among Us is, arguably, the best social experience since the start of the global pandemic! Among Us is the number one deduction game on the App Store and Google-Play with over 300 thousand downloads. SensorTower reported Steam had nearly forty-two million downloads by mid-September 2020. Among Us’s cross-play ability could be a factor in its raging popularity.
Among Us is an online game with colorful avatars destined to fix their spaceship and travel to their next destination. The only problem for the busy-bee crewmates is that treacherous impostor(s) lurk among them. The goal for the impostor is to kill each crewmember without getting caught. The objective for crewmates is to find the impostor(s) and repair the ship before getting killed.
Among Us relies on your mastery of communication and lack thereof. While the majority of the game is spent in silence, players get a small window of time when they explain their location and where the murders occurred.
This meeting allows players to guess who the impostors might be and vote them off the ship. If they vote wrong, the impostors remain hidden and an innocent crewmate is ejected. If their votes are accurate and the impostors are kicked off, the crewmates win the game.
Cross-play support is a major feature of Among Us and allows people with different devices to connect and have in-game text debates. Cross-play is available for gamers on Steam & itch.io. These platforms provide gamers the chance to use their PCs and join the fun with their mobile friends. Among Us cross-play supports PC, iOS, and Android.
To start a cross-platform Among Us game users must begin by joining or hosting a game. To host a game, the player launches the game on their chosen device and selects desired settings on to the main menu. In settings, the host can choose the amount of players, their preferred map, and the chat language.
After confirming the settings, the host’s avatar spawns into a lobby. At the bottom of the lobby’s screen a random code will be provided. The host needs to send this code to their friends who wish to join the game. The lobby will display all the players who have joined the game with their various colors & avatar accessories.
Gamers joining an Among Us match either globally or locally must enter the code in their main menu. Gamers can also choose a local option and join a randomly selected game nearby.
Digital Trends states Among Us players can’t disable cross-play if users are playing online through “matchmaking”. Matchmaking will place users into a lobby that’s always full, so if users want to join their friends, a code is your best bet. InnerSloth specifically wanted their game to have this form of cross-platform support.
Although Among Us provides text communication, there is no internal voice or video chat option. Instead, many use external video chat applications like Discord to communicate. InnerSloth said they are “starting to talk about it” but no further luxury updates have been made.
InnerSloth announced they’re no longer working on Among Us 2. Instead, they’re updating the current game and expanding its content, saying they’ll “put all their focus into improving Among Us 1.” They plan to update servers, create colorblind support, start an account system, and have more themed locations.
According to CNBC, Among Us launched in June 2018 and became popular after a team of Amazon’s Twitch streamers shared the game with their online viewers. These online gamers joined a group of crewmates and found themselves hooked in a time of total isolation.
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Although Among Us does not have many advanced features, the game has remained one of the top downloaded games of 2020. Among Us is available for download on App Store and Google Play.
