Unlocking Cross-Platform UI with Unreal’s CommonUI

If you’re building UI for a multi-platform game in Unreal Engine, CommonUI is an absolute game-changer.

Unified UI Across Platform

With CommonUI, you can build a single adaptive UI that feels native, whether on PC, console, or mobile.

The system automatically detects the input method – mouse & keyboard, gamepad, or touch -and updates UI behavior and visuals at runtime.

It even distinguishes between specific input devices – like Xbox vs. PlayStation controllers – so your glyphs and prompts are always accurate.

Input-Aware Navigation That Just Works

Gamepad support is notoriously fragile when building UIs from scratch, especially regarding focus management.

CommonActivatableWidgets make this far more robust by managing input routing and widget activation cleanly.

You don’t have to worry about losing focus when navigating menus or modal screens with a controller.

Smart Buttons with Built-in Input Bindings

CommonButtons lets you bind InputActions directly to the button itself. That means even if the button is off-screen or not in focus, it can still be triggered via its assigned input. This is especially useful for pause menus, radial wheels, or any UI that’s awkward to navigate to directly.

Real-Time Glyph Swapping & Device Awareness

Need to swap from a gamepad to a keyboard seamlessly? CommonUI does it automatically. Input glyphs update on-the-fly depending on not just the input type but the actual device. Players using a DualSense get PlayStation prompts; Xbox users see Xbox glyphs. No more mismatched button hints.

Platform-Specific Visibility with a Click

Want advanced graphics settings visible on PC but hidden on consoles? Use CommonHardwareVisibilityBorder to show or hide UI elements conditionally based on the platform. No code needed – just tick a checkbox in the widget.

On-Demand Widget Loading with CommonLazyWidget

CommonLazyWidget is perfect for menus or panels that shouldn’t be loaded until needed – like settings screens, modals, or large nested views. It helps keep memory usage and initialization costs low, especially on constrained platforms like mobile or last-gen consoles.

CommonUI helps you ship polished, input-aware interfaces that work on every device and platform, regardless of the type of game you are building.

Make sure you use it for your next project so you’re not reinventing the wheel!

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Here are some useful links to help you start using CommonUI:

• CommonUI Overview

• CommonUI Quickstart Guide

• Introduction to CommonUI (video)