If you play Xbox games on a Windows PC, the app you use to launch them is getting a rebuild. Microsoft says the new Xbox PC app starts up to 60% faster, and Xbox Insiders can try it from 5 November.
Microsoft is also pushing the redesign to the browser version of Xbox Cloud Gaming, and has started on the streaming apps for some TVs and VR headsets. The stated aim is fewer taps between opening Xbox and playing something.
On speed, Microsoft’s Xbox Wire post gives three numbers: 60% for launching the app, 50% for opening Home, Store and Game Pass pages, and 65% for pop-out windows, each as “up to”. Microsoft calls them results from its own tests, which will differ from PC to PC.
The game Library gets easier filters and more ways to organise a big collection. Your friends list now lives in the main menu, next to chat and party buttons. One search box covers games you have installed, add-ons and other players. Game cards, Home, Settings and the animations were also redrawn.
Browser cloud gaming gets a Library tab that lists everything you can stream, owned or through Game Pass, with sorting by recent play, genre and input type. Wide monitors get a desktop layout, and there are dark and light themes plus five high-contrast ones. Microsoft says the new web version will reach more players automatically over the next few weeks; play.xbox.com has it now. It lands days after Xbox Cloud Gaming began testing a phone as a controller.
A writer at The Verge, who says they have used the new app for several weeks, found it noticeably faster on several of their devices and easier to move around with a controller. The writer also notes that the Game Bar overlay on Xbox handhelds now looks out of place beside the new design, and that Microsoft is expected to update it in the coming months.
The Verge’s writer says the app now feels less like a web page wrapped in a window, with a mix of native and web parts, and that the search panel no longer pops up while you move between sections. That matters most on a handheld such as the Xbox Ally devices Microsoft launched last year, where the old app still felt like it was built for a mouse. Jason Beaumont, Microsoft’s VP of Xbox experiences, says each device needs its own layout, so the PC, web and TV versions share the basics without being identical.
Microsoft also asks Insiders for feedback at aka.ms/XBOXplayervoice and says there is more to improve. To join the preview, install the Xbox Insider Hub on a Windows PC. Microsoft has not given a date for when the new PC app will reach everyone, and it did not mention any region-specific limits.
