What is an OTG cable and what is it for? What can you do with it?
Surely if you have opened this post it is because on several occasions you have heard about the OTG Cable and you do not know very well what it is or how it works. Don't worry, we will try to solve all your doubts.
Most people believe that the USB port of their cell phone is only and only for charging the device but this belief is totally wrong. Through this port we can connect almost any device if we have a USB OTG cable.
Contents
What does OTG mean?
OTG stands for On-The-Go. In some devices, it is an extension of USB 2.0 that allows you to connect external devices to your smartphone or tablet without installing any application such as a flash drive, a keyboard or a mouse.
Thanks to OTG cables you can give new uses to your devices. Imagine that you have many hours of boring travel ahead of you, the solution to this problem is thanks to the OTG cable with which you can connect an external hard drive and enjoy all the movies or music you have stored on it.
It is also very easy to use, just plug it in and it is ready to use.
What can I do with a USB OTG port to get the most out of my phone or tablet?
We can not detail all the uses of this type of cable because they are many and varied but we will talk about some of them, so you can get an idea:
- Is your touch screen broken? If your device has a broken screen and the touch function does not work, you can consult the information it contains by connecting a mouse with the OTG cable or answer emails by connecting a keyboard.
- Another possibility that we mentioned before is to connect a pendrive or a memory card. This is a good option for devices that are manufactured with little internal memory or do not have a slot for inserting memory cards.
- You can also connect wired controllers for gaming. These types of accessories usually work well and allow you to get the most gaming performance out of your device.
- Send photos from a camera via cable or use the manual settings controller and make changes to aperture, exposure, ISO and all other settings via your mobile or tablet screen.
These are the most common uses that an OTG cable allows you to use.
How do I know if my phone or tablet has USB OTG support?
You can take a look at the technical descriptions of the mobile or tablet. These sheets detail the processor of the device, the camera features, its RAM memory and even the operating system and sometimes also specify if the USB port is OTG.
If you can't find out if your device has OTG support from the technical description then you will have to do an internet search with the name of your device followed by the term USB OTG and consult specialized forums.
In any case, Android mobile terminals have been manufactured with this compatibility for several years, so if your device is a few years old, you will not have connection problems.
In conclusion
A USB OTG cable offers us a great opportunity of different uses. Our cell phones are small computers with many possibilities of use. If we provide our device with the right support you can discover incredible functions.
Think of all the things you would like to do with your cell phone or tablet and make it happen thanks to the OTG cable.
