The honest answer is no. BetterJoy v7.1 does not work with Joy-Con 2 or the Switch 2 Pro Controller — and neither does the community fork. This is not a settings problem you can fix, a driver you can update, or a checkbox you missed: the Switch 2 controllers speak a different protocol that BetterJoy was never written to understand, because BetterJoy’s last official release (November 2021) predates the Switch 2 hardware by three and a half years. This page explains why, what is actually possible on PC today, and what still works exactly as before.
Why it can’t work: a different protocol, not a new model number
The original Joy-Cons and Pro Controller present themselves to Windows as standard Bluetooth HID gamepads — unusual in places, but readable, which is the entire foundation BetterJoy (and Steam Input, and every other mapper) is built on. The Switch 2 controllers are not standard HID devices. Reporting from the driver-development community has established that they use a custom BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) GATT protocol, and the Switch 2 Pro Controller stays silent until it receives a proprietary activation sequence from the host. A PC that doesn’t send that sequence gets nothing — no buttons, no sticks, no gyro.
Even the identifiers are all new: Joy-Con 2 (R) is 057e:2066, Joy-Con 2 (L) is 057e:2067, and the Switch 2 Pro Controller is 057e:2069 — none of which appear in BetterJoy’s device handling, because none of them existed when it was written. There is no “add the PID and it works” fix; the gap is the protocol underneath.
The symptom everyone Googles
If you’ve tried, you already know the pattern: Windows Bluetooth settings may discover the controller, pairing may even appear to succeed — and then nothing. No input anywhere, BetterJoy shows no device, games see nothing. That is the activation problem above, not a broken controller and not a BetterJoy bug. One more warning from the community guides: repeatedly forcing pairing attempts can trigger a cooldown in which the controller refuses connections for several minutes. If yours went quiet after many retries, leave it alone for a while rather than concluding it’s bricked.
What Switch 2 owners can actually do on PC today
Steam, wired, in beta
The one relatively official path: Valve added Switch 2 Pro Controller support over USB to the Steam Client Beta (late November 2025). The feature was at one point disabled and, per Steam’s January 2026 update notes, re-enabled — beta-channel software behaving like beta-channel software. Two limits to keep in view: it is wired only (Bluetooth is still not an official path for these controllers on PC), and Valve’s wording covers “Switch 2 controllers” without itemising Joy-Con 2 support — Pro Controller over USB is the verified case, Joy-Con 2’s full status in Steam is not officially confirmed feature by feature. If you go this route, our guide to BetterJoy and Steam coexisting explains the one-translator-per-game rule that keeps Steam Input setups clean.
Community projects: experimental, labelled as such
Developers are reverse-engineering the protocol in the open. Names you will encounter include connectyourpro (a Windows community tool focused on the Pro controllers, with Bluetooth support its own author describes as experimental) and Procon2Tool (a web-based workaround discussed in the Steam community). A Valve-commissioned driver has also landed in the Linux kernel line — USB only, no Bluetooth yet. All of this is promising, none of it is BetterJoy, and none of it comes with guarantees: no promise of gyro, rumble, or stability, and quality will vary month to month. We label these experimental deliberately, and we don’t offer downloads for them.
The option nobody likes: wait
Protocol reverse-engineering takes time, and official wireless support may or may not arrive. Anyone selling you a “BetterJoy Switch 2 Edition” download today is selling a fiction — see the red flags in our safety guide.
A note on the Switch 2 GameCube controller
The same November 2025 Steam beta that added wired Pro 2 support also improved the GameCube side of the family — Valve’s notes covered the GameCube adapter in Wii U mode with rumble on Windows — and the Switch 2 GameCube controller carries its own new device ID (057e:2073). We flag it separately because its PC status is even less itemised than the Pro 2’s: treat it as “mentioned in the same beta wave, not individually verified here,” and don’t buy one for PC use on the strength of a headline. The pattern of this whole page applies: with Switch 2 hardware, only believe a PC feature when a primary source names the exact controller and the exact connection.
What still works perfectly
Everything BetterJoy ever supported still works: the original Switch Pro Controller, Joy-Cons and Switch SNES controller pair with a PC and map through BetterJoy exactly as documented in our tutorials, and the community fork covers the same original family (plus NES/N64 pads). If you own both console generations, your Switch 1 pads remain your PC pads; the Switch 2 pads are, for now, console-only except for the wired Steam beta above. And if you’re deciding what your setup actually needs in 2026, the decision guide walks the scenarios without the nostalgia.
Frequently asked questions
Will a future BetterJoy update add Switch 2 support?
The official line has been dormant since 2021 and shows no sign of a Switch 2 release; the community fork hasn’t announced one either, and the protocol work is being done by separate projects. Treat any date or promise you read elsewhere as speculation.
Can Joy-Con 2 work over USB instead?
Joy-Con 2 has no wired data mode for PC play in the verified sources — the wired Steam path applies to the Switch 2 Pro Controller. Don’t buy cables expecting otherwise.
My Switch 2 Pro Controller pairs but sends no input. Is it faulty?
Almost certainly not: pairing without the proprietary activation sequence produces exactly that symptom. Test the controller on the Switch 2 itself; if it works there, it’s the PC protocol gap described above.
More version and trust answers live in the Versions & Trust hub.