Disclosure: we make SofaDeck, which is one of the options below. Facts about Windows and other products were checked on 23 October 2026 and can change. SofaDeck is not affiliated with or endorsed by SimHub or any sim or hardware maker; all trademarks belong to their owners.
Short answer: a phone or tablet makes a good, free secondary button box for a sim rig — pit and setup menus, cameras, replays, lights, wipers and launching apps — because sims let you bind those to keyboard keys. It can't replace physical switches for things you press mid-corner: you can't feel a touchscreen with gloves on and eyes on the apex. Use the phone for the menu work and buy (or build) hardware only for the handful of controls you need by feel.
What a touchscreen is good at — and not
| Phone or tablet | Real button box | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free (you own it) | From cheap DIY kits to premium boxes |
| Labels | Any text, icon or colour, change anytime | Stickers or fixed labels |
| Find by feel | No | Yes |
| Rotary encoders, toggles | No (buttons only) | Yes |
| Shows up as | Keyboard key presses | A game controller |
| Pages for each car or sim | Yes | One layout (or shift layers) |
| Launch sim, apps, voice | Yes | No |
A good layout: the pit-wall page
Put the controls you use on straights, in the pits or between sessions on the phone:
- Pit menu / black box pages, pit limiter, request pit stop, fuel +/-.
- Cameras: cockpit, chase, TV cam, look left/right if you don't have head tracking.
- Lights, flash, wipers, ignition and starter for sims that model them.
- Replay, instant replay, save replay, screenshot.
- Spotter or team chat push-to-talk toggle, Discord mute.
- Launchers: the sim, your telemetry and dashboard apps, the music app, and a "rig off" macro that closes it all.
Keep the buttons big — four or six per screen on a phone, twelve on a tablet — and use colours by group so you can hit them with a quick glance.
How to set it up with SofaDeck
- Install SofaDeck on the rig PC and scan the QR code with the phone or tablet. No app to install on the device.
- Mount the phone where you can reach it without leaning: next to the wheel base or on the monitor stand.
- Add a button per control with the action Key and an unused key such as F13, F14, F15… (free) or a combo like Ctrl+Shift+P (Pro).
- In your sim's controls screen, click the function to bind, then tap the phone button. The sim records the key.
- Test each button in a practice session before a race.
Some sims read input in ways that ignore keys sent by other apps, and Windows blocks them if the sim runs as administrator and SofaDeck doesn't. Test one button first; if nothing happens, run SofaDeck as administrator.
Direct installer .exe · 3.7 MB Store version signed by Microsoft No account Local network only Signed updates SofaDeck installs on your Windows PC. Your phone is the remote — it works in the phone’s browser.One email from support@dixonappstudio.com. No list unless you tick the box. PrivacyOr on your PC, go to sofadeck.com/getWith Pro ($9.99 once) you get unlimited pages (one per car or sim), smart pages that switch when the sim comes to the front, macros, and Steam/Epic import so "play iRacing"-style voice launches work. A spare phone in a rig phone mount works well.
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Want physical switches for the in-race controls? A sim racing button box covers those, and the phone keeps the rest. More: a gaming deck on your phone and macro pad vs phone deck.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use my phone as a sim racing button box?
Yes, for anything your sim lets you bind to a keyboard key: pit menus, black-box pages, camera views, replay, wipers, lights, push-to-talk on a spotter, and launching the sim and its apps. A phone sends key presses, not joystick buttons, and it has no tactile feel, so it suits menus and between-corner actions better than things you press mid-corner.
Which key should I bind for a phone button box?
Use keys your sim and other apps don't use. Windows understands F13–F24, which no keyboard has; if your sim's binding screen accepts them, they never clash. Otherwise use Ctrl/Shift combinations.
Is a phone or tablet better than a real button box?
A real button box wins in the race: you find switches by feel, it works as a game controller, and rotary encoders are hard to beat. A phone or tablet wins on cost, labels and flexibility, and is a good way to find out which controls you actually need before you buy or build one.
Can a phone show a sim racing dashboard too?
Yes, with dedicated telemetry dashboard software such as SimHub, which can show dashboards in a phone or tablet browser. SofaDeck doesn't read game telemetry; it is the button side. Its PC stats page shows CPU, memory and NVIDIA GPU temperature.