Nintendo Switch App

Review by eFreeware

Some of the most useful parts of console gaming happen away from the console. You want to know whether a friend is free to play, you want to look at a screenshot you took last night, or you want to check a schedule before you sit down. On Nintendo's systems, much of that has been pushed to a phone, and the Nintendo Switch App is the tool the company built for it.

It comes from Nintendo Co., Ltd., the platform holder itself, and it is free to install. The app sits under Entertainment rather than Games, which is a fair description: it is a companion rather than something you play. It has been on Google Play since July 2017 and has passed 10 million installs, with a 3.9 average across 77,516 ratings.

What I find interesting about it is how unevenly useful it is. For a general player it is a friend list and a capture gallery; for someone deep into one of the supported titles it can be considerably more. The rest of this review looks at what each of those halves offers and what the app expects from you in return.

Friends, status and the notification that matters

The feature Nintendo leads with is the friend list. You can see who is online and which game they are playing, which sounds minor until you are trying to arrange a session with someone whose schedule you do not know. The app also lets you switch on a notification for when a friend comes online, so you can leave your phone alone and let it tell you when there is company.

Adding people does not require the console. You can send a request using a friend code or a QR code from the phone itself, which is handy when the person is standing in front of you and the system is in another room. Presence, requests and an alert make up the friend functionality, and that is a sensible scope.

The caveat is that this is only as good as your existing network. The app shows the friends you already have on your Nintendo Account; it does not create a new social layer of its own. If your list is empty, there is not much here to look at, which is worth knowing before you judge the app on this section alone.

Screenshots and videos away from the console

The second pillar is captures. Captures taken on a Switch 2 can be sent to the app for viewing, saving or sharing from your phone. For anyone who posts clips or stills from games, this replaces a fiddly transfer with something closer to a normal phone workflow.

The most recent update is all about managing that library. You can now filter and sort the uploads, delete them from the server, and choose to save a screenshot to your device with its original capture date rather than the date you saved it. That last option is a small thing that matters a great deal if you keep photos in a timeline and want them in the right order.

The capture side looks like a Switch 2 convenience rather than a universal one.

Extra services for five specific games

The part that gives the app its real character is the set of game-specific services, which currently covers five titles. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, in their Nintendo Switch 2 Editions, get voice guidance toward places you have not yet visited and the ability to pass schematics and items to other players through QR codes. Splatoon 3 shows the online status of friends in the game, your battle and Salmon Run statistics, and the upcoming stage schedule.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons uses the phone to send messages that show up inside the game and to check the status of players marked as Best Friends, and it can carry custom designs made in earlier Animal Crossing titles across to New Horizons. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate lets you browse images and videos that users have shared, queue downloads of stages made by other players so they are ready to play, and receive notices about upcoming events. Splatoon 2 covers leaderboards, map schedules and the same battle and Salmon Run stats.

Read that list as a map of who the app is built for. If you play one of these games regularly, the phone becomes a second screen for statistics, schedules and coordination. If your library sits outside it, you are left with the friend list and the gallery, which are pleasant but thinner.

What the app asks of you before it works

Nintendo is unusually direct about requirements, and they are worth taking at face value. You need a Nintendo Account, and for some online features, including voice chat, that account must be registered to someone aged 13 or over. Certain features also need an active Nintendo Switch Online membership, which is sold separately and is not part of the app.

Beyond the account, you need a Nintendo Switch 2 or Nintendo Switch system and compatible software for the app's features to have anything to talk to. A compatible smartphone is required, and the app needs a persistent internet connection. Data charges may apply depending on your plan.

The cost picture is otherwise simple: the app itself is free, with no in-app purchases. The money, where it appears, is on the console side of the equation. Nintendo Switch Online is also not available in every country, so the membership-dependent features can be out of reach depending on where you live.

How I would fit it into a routine

My suggestion is to treat the app as two tools with different rhythms. The friend list and its notification are passive: install it, turn the alert on if you play with others, and check the list when you are deciding whether to pick up a controller. The capture side is more deliberate, and it pays to go through the settings once so screenshots land on your phone with the right date.

For the game services, the value comes from checking in between sessions rather than during them. Looking at a Splatoon 3 stage schedule or your Salmon Run numbers before you sit down is a different activity from playing, and it is the kind of thing a phone is genuinely good at. The same goes for queueing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate stages so they are waiting for you.

I would also keep expectations calibrated by the rating. A 3.9 average from a large body of ratings suggests an app that many people find useful and a fair number find frustrating, which fits a companion that is only as rich as the games you own and the friends you have added. It is not a general-purpose hub for everything Nintendo.

A companion for the already-committed

The Nintendo Switch App makes the most sense for someone who plays one of the five supported games regularly and already has friends on their Nintendo Account. For that player it removes real friction: checking who is around, keeping up with schedules and statistics, moving captures to a phone, and handling a friend request without turning on the console. It is free, and there is no purchase inside it to weigh.

For everyone else the case is weaker. Without a supported game the app is a friend list and a gallery for Switch 2 captures, and without a Nintendo Switch Online membership some features stay closed. The 13+ account rule and the persistent connection are further conditions to accept before any of it works.

So my recommendation is narrow but confident: install it if Nintendo's online games are already part of your week, and let the game-specific services decide how much you get out of it. If your play is mostly single-player and local, the app will sit on your phone doing very little.

What's new in version 3.5.0

・ Added the ability to filter and sort uploaded screenshots and videos. ・ Added the ability to delete uploaded screenshots and videos from the server. ・ Added the ability to set the capture date as the save date when saving a screenshot to your device. This feature can be configured from the app settings. ・ Other small bug fixes and improvements have also been made.