US and UK testers can stream Xbox games from console to smartphones

Certain Xbox test users in the US and UK are now able to try out the Xbox Console Streaming service. This test allows them to stream their Xbox games from their console to a mobile device.

Microsoft says the group of testers will be expanded to other regions in the future, but which regions and when that will happen is unknown. In fact, this service turns the native Xbox One into a console server, allowing users to stream their entire Xbox One game library to mobile devices.

The test users who can try Console Streaming now will need an Android phone or tablet with Android 6.0 or higher and support for Bluetooth 4.0. In addition, a wireless Xbox One controller is necessary. Furthermore, an upload bandwidth of at least 4.75Mbit/s is required and the network latency must be 125ms or lower. Microsoft has not announced plans to make Console Streaming available to iOS users as well.

Console Streaming is part of Project xCloud, for which Microsoft has installed Xbox hardware in its data centers to eventually stream all Xbox games. A test is currently running with Project xCloud, in which a select group in the US, UK and Korea can try out four games. All they need is an Android phone or tablet and a wireless Xbox One controller. Console Streaming differs from this in that the own Xbox console becomes the server, as it were, and all games can be streamed immediately.