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Microsoft Releases Preview Build of Xbox-Android Streaming

Credit: Microsoft

It ain’t the future til you can stream everything on anything.

Microsoft has been making waves for almost a year now about their interest in streaming services. In an ideal world, you’ll be able to stream your Xbox games to just about any wi-fi connected device. The mysterious Project xCloud is still deep in development, but for now, Microsoft has released something of a precursor to to it. Or, I guess, a precursor to a precursor.

Earlier in the week, Microsoft launched a preview build for their new Console Streaming feature, which would allow you to stream and play games from your Xbox One to an Android smartphone. Since it’s just a preview, however, there’s a bit of a laundry list of prerequisites you need to fill if you want to take a swing.

  1. You need to be a member of Xbox Insider.
  2. Your Xbox One needs to be enrolled in Alpha or Alpha-Skip-Ahead.
  3. You need a phone or tablet with at least Android 6.0, as well as Bluetooth 4.0.
  4. You need a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One wireless controller.
  5. While not required, Microsoft does recommend a mount to attach your phone to your controller. Or just tape it to the wall or something, it doesn’t matter.

If you meet all of these prerequisites, then you can download the Xbox Game Streaming (Preview) app from the Google Play store, set up your network for streaming, and go to town. Console Streaming will allow you to test a variety of Xbox One games (OG Xbox and 360 games aren’t available yet), and in fact, Microsoft encourages you to try as many games as you can so they can get lots of test data. There’s no word on how long the preview will last, so just play whatever.

For more information, visit Microsoft’s page.

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