Mobile input

Over half of all Roblox sessions are played on mobile devices, so it's important to consider cross-platform accessibility when designing an experience for a wide audience. For mobile inputs, design around the device orientation that you intend players to use in your experience, and consider that the player may have other input devices connected such as a bluetooth mouse/keyboard or gamepad.

Device orientation

On phones and tablets, the device orientation considerably affects the player experience and interaction. For example, landscape mode is best operated with two thumbs while portrait mode may lend itself to one-finger interface.

By default, Roblox experiences run in landscape mode, allowing the experience to switch between landscape "left" and landscape "right" as the player's device rotates. However, experiences can be locked to a particular orientation if desired.

Orientation modes

There are five different orientation modes, including two sensor-based modes and three locked modes.

Sensor modes
Landscape sensorThe default Roblox setting in which the experience always appears in landscape mode (no portrait mode) and the device detects its physical orientation to ensure the experience view is always oriented upward.
SensorThe device detects its physical orientation to ensure the experience view is always oriented upward, switching between landscape and portrait mode as needed.
Locked modes
Landscape leftOn devices with a physical home button, the home button is to the left of the display. On devices with a virtual home/nav bar, its touch region is at the bottom of the display.
Landscape rightOn devices with a physical home button, the home button is to the right of the display. On devices with a virtual home/nav bar, its touch region is at the bottom of the display.
PortraitOn devices with a physical home button, the home button is below the display. On devices with a virtual home/nav bar, its touch region is at the bottom of the display.

Orientation properties

When setting an orientation, you can set the starting orientation, the in-experience orientation, and the current orientation.

Starting orientation

StarterGui.ScreenOrientation sets the default orientation for a place. Acceptable values include:

Because this property affects all new players who join the experience, you can set its value in StarterGui.ScreenOrientation within Studio.

In-experience orientation

PlayerGui.ScreenOrientation explicitly changes the experience's orientation for a player. When this property is set to one of the Enum.ScreenOrientation enums in a LocalScript, the experience will immediately orient itself to match the setting. This can be useful when an experience needs to provide a particular experience like locking the view to portrait for a minigame.

The following code sample in a LocalScript sets the screen orientation to portrait:

local Players = game:GetService("Players")

local playerGUI = Players.LocalPlayer:WaitForChild("PlayerGui")



task.wait(2)



playerGUI.ScreenOrientation = Enum.ScreenOrientation.Portrait

Current orientation

PlayerGui.CurrentScreenOrientation gets the current device orientation. Possible values include:

The following code prints the player's current screen orientation:

local Players = game:GetService("Players")

local playerGUI = Players.LocalPlayer:WaitForChild("PlayerGui")



print(playerGUI.CurrentScreenOrientation)

Character movement modes

Roblox offers several StarterPlayer properties you can set to change how players on mobile devices can move through your experience.

You can set mobile movement control schemes for Roblox experiences by changing the values of StarterPlayer.DevTouchMovementMode to one of the following:

OptionDescription
UserChoiceAllows players to choose their desired control scheme from the in-experience menu. This is the default movement mode.
DynamicThumbstickA dynamic thumbstick appears where the player initially presses down. This mode includes a jump button in the lower-right region of the screen. This is the default setting for players on mobile if UserChoice is set.
ThumbstickA mobile thumbstick located in the lower-left region of the screen. Unlike DynamicThumbstick, the thumbstick position is static and doesn't change position when the player touches on the screen.
ClickToMovePlayers can only move through the experience by tapping a target location. This mode includes a jump button in the lower-right region of the screen, and the player's character will automatically jump when hitting a surmountable obstacle/gap while moving to the click destination.
ScriptableDisables all default controls and allows you to script your own control scheme.
DPad
Thumbpad

Detect other devices

In cross-platform experiences, it's important to reference the player's preferred input options by displaying input options for the actively used device. For example, a mobile device can have a mouse and keyboard or gamepad connected, or it's possible that a desktop has a touchscreen enabled. If multiple input sources are enabled, you can use GetLastInputType() to get the player's last used input device.

As a foundation, you can use the following ModuleScript, placed within ReplicatedStorage and renamed to UserInputModule, to fetch the player's input type, after which you can adapt the UI layout or context to your experience's specific needs.

local UserInputService = game:GetService("UserInputService")



local UserInput = {}



local inputTypeString

-- If device has active keyboard and mouse, assume those inputs

if UserInputService.KeyboardEnabled and UserInputService.MouseEnabled then

	inputTypeString = "Keyboard/Mouse"

-- Else if device has touch capability but no keyboard and mouse, assume touch input

elseif UserInputService.TouchEnabled then

	inputTypeString = "Touch"

-- Else if device has an active gamepad, assume gamepad input

elseif UserInputService.GamepadEnabled then

	inputTypeString = "Gamepad"

end



function UserInput.getInputType()

	local lastInputEnum = UserInputService:GetLastInputType()



	if lastInputEnum == Enum.UserInputType.Keyboard or string.find(tostring(lastInputEnum.Name), "MouseButton") or lastInputEnum == Enum.UserInputType.MouseWheel then

		inputTypeString = "Keyboard/Mouse"

	elseif lastInputEnum == Enum.UserInputType.Touch then

		inputTypeString = "Touch"

	elseif string.find(tostring(lastInputEnum.Name), "Gamepad") then

		inputTypeString = "Gamepad"

	end

	return inputTypeString, lastInputEnum

end



return UserInput

Once the UserInputModule script is in place, use the following code sample in a LocalScript to get the user's last input type:

local ReplicatedStorage = game:GetService("ReplicatedStorage")



-- Require module

local UserInputModule = require(ReplicatedStorage:WaitForChild("UserInputModule"))



local currentUserInput, inputEnum = UserInputModule.getInputType()

print(currentUserInput, inputEnum)