For quite a while now, the Xbox mobile application has allowed users to control their console remotely from their Android or iOS smartphone, their tablet or their PC. However, to benefit from this functionality, you absolutely had to use a Bluetooth controller. This is no longer the case.
Update after update, Microsoft is working to improve the user experience on the Xbox mobile application. Since December 2023, the Xbox app allows you to spot good games at a glance. Indeed, the Metacritic rating of each title is now displayed on the games page. In November, the Xbox app on PC also received a major update, with many new features such as a portable mode or a new tool for repairing game files.
However, as our colleagues at The Verge report, Microsoft has just integrated a new feature into the latest beta version of the Xbox mobile application. To summarize, users can now control their Xbox Series X/S and One console and play remotely without necessarily needing a Bluetooth wireless controller.
Microsoft finally allows remote gaming with touch controls only
The touch controls are identical to those found in Xbox Cloud Gaming in the Games section with touch interaction. Here too, players can if they wish adjust the on-screen control overlay to find an optimal fit for your hands and playing style.
According to early feedback from beta users, the touch controls are pretty well thought out. Good news, especially when we know that you absolutely needed a Bluetooth controller to experience the joys of remote control before. Note, however, that it is not surprising to see Microsoft pushing touch controls in this way.
In 2021, Monty Hernandez, Senior Program Manager at Xbox, revealed some figures which demonstrated gamers’ interest in touch controls on Xbox Cloud Gaming : “20% of our Xbox Cloud Gaming users use touch as their exclusive method of playing games. For this reason, it is important to us that the touch games we launch are relevant, and above all, that they work well with these controls,” did he declare.
He pursues : “We have seen, on average, a 2x increase in usage in titles available through Xbox Cloud Gaming across all genres, and the experience of users playing with touch controls is on average equivalent if not higher than that of the complete Xbox Cloud Gaming platform”.