The Xbox App for Windows 11/10 looks like a true winner, something worthy of regular use by gamers worldwide. The app offers many of the features that make Xbox Live unique and fun to use. However, it doesn’t come with the biggest con Xbox Live faces, and that’s the $10pm price tag to play online.
Xbox Live app for Windows PC
Obviously, Microsoft could not have done this on the PC because the service would be at a disadvantage to Steam and Origins. The latter services do not charge gamers to play online, and we’re glad for that. Now, all that needs to happen is for Microsoft to remove the pricing for console gamers to play online.
How does the Xbox One app stack up?
The app’s most important feature is that users can stream Xbox One games to their PC. Just connect the console to the PC through the app, and watch the magic happen as any game being played on the console begins to be streamed to the PC.
This is great for when you might want to take your laptop outside for a while or if your living room television is shared with others in the house.
The problem is that it is not yet possible to stream games outside of your local network. This means that going to your friend’s house a few blocks down the road in hopes of showing off the new streaming trick will not work.
When it comes down to how the app performs overall, we can’t complain. Though we should point out that a slow computer might have difficulties, so bear that in mind.
How to use the Xbox app
The Xbox app for Windows is more gaming-focused now; in fact, everything about it is gaming-focused. On the left-hand side, users should see a series of icons with words beside them. These allow the app to do all its great things.
For example, the Home button brings the user to the app’s home screen. Here, gamers can view all the activities from anyone on their friends list. If a person earns an Achievement or gamerscore or just happened to share a video, it will all show up here.
The My Games section shows the games in the user’s library. It can be games from the Windows Store or more traditional games from Steam or other platforms.
Another thing we like is Game DVR. With this, users can record the best scenes in their video games and share them with their friends. The big upside to this feature and the one on the Xbox One is that gamers can record for longer periods.
Users can even use Game DVR to view videos from others in the community. Right now we are watching a few guys performing neat tricks with a bike in Grand Theft Auto 6.
On the right side of the app, we see the pane where all the folks on your friends list will show up. If they are offline, you will know; if they are online, you will know.
There’s a settings option on the left pane. From there, users can decide if they want the Xbox Live app to have a Live tile or a static one. You can also choose to be notified when your favorite friends start a Twitch broadcast, or how Game DVR works in the background.
Not every PC is capable of recording games in the background, so keep that in mind.
Overall, the Xbox Live app is great, and we hope to see Microsoft add more features in the future.
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