Input System

The Input System allows your users to control your game or app using a device, touch, or gestures.

Introduction

Unity supports input through two separate systems, one older, and one newer.

The older system, which is built-in to the editor, is called the Input Manager. The Input Manager is part of the core Unity platform and is the default, if you do not install the Input System package.

This Input System package is a newer, more flexible system, which allows you to use any kind of Input Device to control your Unity content. It's intended to be a replacement for Unity's classic Input Manager. It is referred to as the "Input" System Package, or just The Input System. To use it, you must install it into your project using the Package Manager.

Tip

During the installation process for the Input System package, the installer offers to automatically deactivate the older built-in system.

To get started, refer to the Workflows section to decide how to use Input:

  • Using actions, which is the recommended workflow.
  • Using both actions and the PlayerInput component, which provides features for callbacks and multiplayer.
  • Directly read device states with a script for fast prototyping or single-platform applications.

For a demo project, refer to the Warriors demo on GitHub.

Screenshot of the Input Actions Editor window displaying the default action map, Actions, and Action Properties. They are displayed in 3 columns side-by-side in that order.
The Input Actions Editor, displaying some of the default actions that come pre-configured with the Input System package.