Control Xbox One from your Phone with Xbox SmartGlass

What if you could control your Xbox One by using your smartphone, wouldn’t that be cool? It’s possible and has been for a very long time now. Microsoft has surely done a splendid job here, and we hope to see more work done in allowing the system to connect to a mobile device.

Now, controlling the Xbox One via a smartphone requires an app known as Xbox Smartglass. This app can be found via the Windows Store, Google Play, and the Apple App Store.

This can also be done with the Xbox 360, but we’re covering the Xbox One seeing as the Xbox 360 is old news. Upgrade if you haven’t already. The Xbox One S only cost $299 at retail.

Xbox SmartGlass – Control Xbox One with Phone

First, download the Xbox SmartGlass app from your respective app store. Be sure to have an Xbox Live account and an active internet connection or else you’ll have problems. You’ll need to sign into the same Microsoft account used to sign into the Xbox One.

After signing in, the SmartGlass app should detect your Xbox One automatically. For this to happen, both systems need to be on the same network.

Tap on the Xbox One icon then tap on “Connect” to move forward. You can also set it to automatically connect to your Xbox One in the future.

If that doesn’t work, you will need to find your Xbox One’s IP address. It can be used to connect SmartGlass to the console.

To find the IP address, pick up the Xbox One controller and go to All Settings > Network > Network Settings > Advanced Settings. You should see the IP Address, so copy it and enter it into the app on your phone.

Once everything has been connected, You should see a user interface with a slight controller-like design on your phone screen. You can use it to navigate the UI or even launch a video game. It’s not the best experience, but it’s good enough seeing as it’s not meant to be advanced.

We doubt Microsoft will do more with this feature, but we’d at least love to see it become better in the future to come.

Probably the best thing about this, is the ability to use the smartphone’s keyboard to type. Still, if using the controller to type is a major problem, then recommend getting a USB keyboard instead. It works, and faster too.

Download the Android app here, the iOS app here, and the Windows app here.