USB OTG Cable: How to Connect Phones to External Mouse/Keyboards etc. with USB OTG easy

Do you know you can connect external Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepads, printer, flash etc. To your Phone.

USB OTG Cable is becoming very important now that smartphones are doing great varieties of laptop/PC functions with wide range of apps developed to carryout these system functionalities just using you Smartphone, it is then of a great advantage being able to use a external mouse as well as a keyboard on you smartphones.

With the help of OTG, One could also think of accessing files (like videos, documents, audios, etc.) stored in a flash, using a smartphone or charging a phone with another phone. All these and more are possible using USB OTG Cable.

Just like a common charging USB cable which comes in varieties of micro USB, Mini USB and also type-C USB connectors, USB OTG Cable comes in same varieties on one end but then on the other end comes a port (that is usually built on the charger) instead of a connector (commonly seen on a cable).

This enables you to plug in your USB cable in the OTG allowing you to access files (audio, documents, videos, etc.) and enables phone to phone connection.

Once the USB OTG Cable connector is connected to your phone’s charging port (if the phone is compatible with OTG), it permits you to slot the USB connector of your external mouse, keyboard, flash, gamepads etc. to the OTG USB port on the other end of the OTG Cable.

And then you can freely use them to operate your phone (in the case of external mouse/keyboard, gamepads etc.) or access their files with your phone (in the case of flash and phone to phone connections).

Types of USB OTG Cable based on Connector

USB connectors

You can classify OTG cables based on their Connectors as listed below.

1. micro USB
2. Mini USB
3. Type-C USB
4. Apple dock connector
5. Multi-connectors

6 Things You can Connect to Your Phone Using USB OTG Cable

a phone connected to a cable

this is a list of the things we have tried out with USB OTG Cable, though there might be more USB OTG cable can do for you.

Benefits of USB OTG Cable

• If you are a smartphone graphics designer, digital artist or maybe you use your phone for drawing, using external mouse will be of a great desire to you. OTG enables you to Connect external mouse to your phone and draw out or work with very small spaces. Achieving neatness and accuracy in such areas.
• Connecting keyboard to your phone is a stress saving achievement for almost everybody who uses their phone for typing: (1) It helps students do their typings using their phone as if the are using a PC. (2) it is a great advantage to freelancers who do writing jobs to easily do their typings.
• If you need external storage apart from the primary and secondary storages on your device, then USB OTG Cable helps you Connect a flash to your phone, accessing files in the flash from the device, deleting/editing/adding, etc.
• Apart from file transfer, you can charge your phone with another phone (if compatible) through an OTG cable. This is most useful if you have a damaged smartphone compatible with USB OTG Cable, you can happily use it as power bank to charge other phones.
• OTG Cable has become very useful to game lovers, with the help of OTG Cable you can play your favorite games with gamepads on your smartphone.

To connect USB OTG Cable to your phone, just plug the USB OTG into your Smartphone, and connect the USB game controller to the other end of the adapter. Next, open the game you want to play. If the game has a controller support it will detect the device, and you’ll be ready to play.

How to activate OTG on Your Phone

you can activate a smartphone OTG with few clicks. Simply Connect the phone using the cable to another device for instance, mouse, you will get a pop up directing you to ‘on’ OTG on your phone. Click on it, and ‘on’ the OTG as it takes you to phone settings. Then you device is set.

USB OTG Price

OTG USB cable costs around $2.5 to $5 and can be purchased in various online market places as well as offline.