For years, Pokémon fans playing on the Miyoo Mini Plus have had to accept one painful limitation: no trading on GBA. You could play through FireRed, Emerald, or any other GBA title solo, but the experience of swapping Pokémon between cartridges — one of the most iconic features of the franchise — was simply out of reach. That changes with Onion OS 4.4 beta.

Two recently merged pull requests bring full wireless Pokémon trading and battling to the Miyoo Mini Plus/Flip, making 4.4 one of the most exciting Onion OS releases in a long time.

The Foundation: gpSP Gets Netplay

The groundwork was laid in PR #1721, merged in late 2024, which updated the gpSP GBA emulator core to the latest libretro version — one that includes netplay support. Along with this, gpSP became the new default GBA core in Onion OS, replacing mGBA.

The netplay implementation works by emulating the GBA Wireless Adapter at a software level. Rather than requiring physical hardware, the gpSP core tunnels wireless adapter traffic through RetroArch's network backend, meaning two Miyoo Mini devices on the same network can communicate as if they were sitting next to each other with real link cables. Contributor Aemiii91 also built in smart save migration logic: if you already have mGBA saves, Onion OS will detect them and prompt you to transfer or keep them before switching over.

The Feature: Pokémon Battle and Trade Menu Entries

PR #1790, merged January 17, 2026, took the netplay foundation and turned it into something any Pokémon fan can actually use. Contributor jboss38 (Blitz) added dedicated menu entries for Pokémon battles and trades directly into the Onion OS game menu.

Under the hood, the feature runs custom shell scripts that set up a netplay session between two devices. Each device runs its own copy of the game with its own save file — the gpSP core handles the wireless adapter emulation and passes the data through. The result: you can trade Pokémon between two Miyoo Minis running different game versions. FireRed to LeafGreen, Red to Blue — it all works.

"Trading pokemon between RED to RED and GREEN to GREEN but ALSO between RED and GREEN" — jboss38

This cross-version trading is particularly notable. Historically, even emulator-based solutions have struggled with cross-version compatibility. The implementation here avoids complex file transfer or save-syncing logic entirely, keeping setup simple.

What you'll need:

What About the Miyoo Mini Flip?

If you're a Miyoo Mini Flip owner hoping 4.4 brings official support for your device, there's a small wait ahead. PR #1860 — which introduces initial Mini Flip hardware compatibility including lid-close detection, hall sensor support, USB-C headphone switching, and proper display resolution handling — was merged against the v4.5-dev branch, not 4.4.

So Mini Flip support is confirmed and actively developed (thanks to contributor xXJSONDeruloXx and the testing team), but it's targeting the next major release. Mini Plus users are the intended audience for 4.4.

A Big Deal for the Community

Wireless Pokémon trading on a pocket-sized handheld running custom firmware is the kind of feature that sounds impossible until it isn't. The Onion OS team has a track record of shipping things the community assumed were too complex, and this is another example. If you have two Miyoo Minis and a stack of Pokémon games you never finished trading through, 4.4 beta is worth checking out.

Keep an eye on the Onion OS releases page for the official 4.4 drop, and as always — back up your saves before updating.

Update

Check out this video demonstrating wireless Pokémon trading in action on the Miyoo Mini: