Qi charging uses induction field between the phone's special Qi cover and a Qi-enabled charger mat. The phone's cover and the charger mat must be able to communicate, because half the circuitry is inside the cover and the other half is inside the mat. Cases with regular covers will not work with Qi charger mats as half the circuitry is missing. So the answer is you need to have a compatible cover for the phone and a compatible charger mat to make it work.