Microsoft has now officially announced that its newest Xbox app for mobile devices will enable players to stream their entire Xbox One game library to their smartphones. Interestingly, the company also added that users will be able to stream the games over their local network at zero cost. For now, the feature has only been announced for Android phones. However, the giant software company has hinted that iOS users will soon be able to make use of the new app to stream Xbox games to their iPhones.
Players Will Soon Be Able To Stream Xbox Games To iPhone
As mentioned earlier, Microsoft has now rolled out a new feature that allows people to stream their Xbox games to their phones. Speaking of the feature, it’s the same as “Console Streaming“, which the company rolled out in the past. However, that was only available for Xbox Insiders to use. With the new Xbox app, it means interested players using Android will be able to stream Xbox games to their phones.
In case you’re wondering if the feature will be available for iOS devices, then you’re not alone in this. Many people have started asking the same question since the company announced the feature for Android devices. Let’s face it, an iOS version of the new Xbox app will soon be available for people to stream their Xbox games to their iPhones. Recently, there’ve been some speculations that the new app won’t support the streaming feature. However, according to Sean Hollister of The Verge, Microsoft has assured that the app will work. Furthermore, he said Microsoft revealed that the aim of that, is to strike a balance between what it offers both iOS and Android devices.
Here’s a brief of what Hollister said regard that below:
“There’s an iOS version coming too — and while my colleague Tom Warren originally suggested the console streaming feature probably wouldn’t come to iOS, I’m now willing to bet it will.
“Microsoft now tells me the goal is actually to have full parity between the iOS and Android apps, and that Apple is already reviewing the iOS version now.”
How About Apple’s Strict Rule?
As mentioned earlier, many people believe players won’t be able to stream their Xbox games to their iPhones. According to them, they said the main reason for that is because of Apple’s strict rule against gaming platforms in the app store. Well, according to Hollister, Microsoft has another form of game streaming, which isn’t against Apple’s strict rules.
Hollister mentioned that Apple has a name for apps like that, and it’s unique than other individual streaming game ideas. The name of the app is “Remote Desktop Clients“. He further went ahead to suggest that it’ll look biased for Apple to block Microsoft on the new app. Here’s why he said that below:
“Apple allows those kinds of remote desktop apps to do just about anything. That’s likely because they’re valuable for more than just games. There’s a whole category of sysadmins and other techs that rely on them to troubleshoot PCs remotely. And it’d be hard (though not impossible) to shut down this kind of app without restricting those as well…
“But when it comes to the Xbox app’s fate, there’s a far more important precedent. Sony’s PS4 Remote Play is already on iOS, and it works almost exactly the same as Microsoft’s Xbox console streaming. It similarly mirrors the entire PS4 interface, including access to the PlayStation Store.”
Lastly, Hollister explained that unless Apple will change its rules like it always does, he’s confident that the Cupertino-based company will approve the ability to stream Xbox games to iPhones using the upcoming Xbox app for iOS devices.
