Baconit arrives on Xbox One Preview, bringing dank Reddit memes to your console

By Jez Corden
published

Social news and networking site Reddit has been available on the Xbox One for some time thanks to ReddX, but we now have more options thanks to UWP.

If you're a long-time Windows Central reader, you're no doubt acquainted with Baconit, which remains one of the best ways to browse Reddit on Windows 10 PCs and Mobile. The app has now appeared on the Xbox One Preview, just in time for the Summer Update.

Baconit on Xbox One hasn't been adapted for the console in any way. It is instead a direct copy of the PC version. Apps that arrive on Xbox One in this manner utilize a joystick-bound cursor, using the controller for scrolling and the 'B' button in place of the back button on phones, and in the title bar of UWP apps on PC. If you have used Microsoft Edge on Xbox One before, it handles very similarly.

Here's a gallery of Baconit in action on Xbox One:

Image 1 of 6

Baconit functions mostly as expected. You're able to browse in the same way you would on its Windows 10 PC version, using the controller's left joystick in place of a mouse, and the on-screen keyboard in place of a physical keyboard. You can cycle through subreddit posts by dragging the right joystick to the left on the title of a post, similarly to how you can swipe through posts on a phone's touch-screen or using a laptop trackpad. You can use the right and left triggers to zoom as well, similar to the functionality found on Microsoft Edge, with the Xbox One controller's menu button functioning as a long press or right click.

When it comes to content, websites work as expected, as do gifs and images. YouTube videos work too, complete with full-screen HD playback and media controls, and it will even boot up external links in Microsoft Edge. Baconit also supports notifications, allowing you to reply instantly to comments and messages you receive on the network via the Xbox One's notification list, situated in the guide menu.

Baconit feels a little unstable as of writing, occasionally locking up followed by the odd crash, but it's early days yet, and there are probably optimizations that can be made. As Baconit is a direct port of the PC version, it comes complete with redundant features like "Save Image," which is functionality currently unavailable to UWP apps on Xbox One.

UWP is opening up a world of opportunities for developers, who can finally target living room TV screens with their Windows apps. For users, the Universal Windows Platform means the Xbox One will have more apps and functionality than any console in history, as Microsoft's grand Windows 10 ecosystem convergence finally becomes complete.

You can grab Baconit on the Xbox One Preview by searching the store. Alternatively, check out the link below to try Baconit on Windows 10 or Windows 10 Mobile.

Download Baconit from the Windows Store (opens in new tab)

Jez Corden
Jez Corden
Co-Managing Editor

Jez Corden a Managing Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by caffeine. Follow on Twitter @JezCorden and listen to his Xbox Two podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!

15 Comments
  • Wow apps appearing all over the one
  • This is great. It shows the power of UWP.
  • Ultimate. Windows. Power!!!
  • Can't find this either.....
  • Dank
  • I've not seen anywhere that Microsoft has officially began taking submissions for the Xbox One device family and I am not seeing the option in the dev center either. These developers must have been invited to submit these apps to the store thus far. However, I am pretty excited to bring mine to the console :)
  • I think it is invite only at the moment, but it'll open up more broadly in the future.
  • Well I am super excited for that time! :D
  • you just need this option turned on. http://imgur.com/a/iXtHy
  • Yes, I'm aware of this. I was just curious as to if it was officially available to submit it to the Xbox One device family as of now. I'm currently not ready to submit mine.
  • Hearing about this reminds me of using Facebook on the Xbox 360: a cool party trick at first, but the novelty quickly wore off. Browsing a desktop/mobile service on a TV using a controller to navigate is going to get old very quickly. 
  • If the controls are properly adapted for console, I don't see why not. I agree that the joystick cursor isn't ideal though.
  • It doesn't necessarily have to be Facebook-like apps. Think of all the awesome multimedia apps on the store that could suddenly become available - take myTube for example compared to the existing youtube app, or even VLC compared to the Movies & TV app. It's just going to take a huge load off MS having to develop so many apps in-house for the XB1 and many great 3rd party alternatives would be available.
    I expect mainly media consumption apps to be the dominant apps - youtube, sports channels, Netflix et al, Podcast apps, Music and Radio, Video players. Good times to be an XB1 user!
  • Though apps like Facebook and Reddit may not be all too useful on 10-foot experience, the bigger problem that I see with the current wave of Universal Apps on Xbox One is that the UX are generally not perfectly optimze for console use, a 10-foot experience in general. Aside from aesthetic standpoint, the navigation at least on the screenshots looks rather complicated and not so predictable until you get used to it. There are just too many direction of interaction that it makes the navigation rather complex for a device that isn't meant to be. Technically, UWP on Xbox One is great, the biggest overlooked problem though is that they didn't make a proper UI design specification for these Universal Apps to be optimized for 10-foot experience that is largely driven by gamepad or remote and voice. It seems they suddenly didn't realize the significance of Media Center UX and earlier Xbox One dashboard navigation. Its really odd though since the new Xbox Dashboard actually aims to make 10-foot navigation more simple and faster to use, yet we got Universal Apps now on Xbox that is largely wildwest in terms of UI interaction that feels like a normal desktop/tablet apps blown into the TV. Hopefully that Microsoft will realize this sooner and provide a design specification that is designed for 10-foot UX. So that developers will have a standard UI for their apps when running on Xbox One (and for any potential Windows TV/Xbox Lite). Making an app to work with gamepad/remote isn't enough to complete the proper TV apps experience. Microsoft isn't new to this thing, thus they don't have an excuse to specify UWP to have standard TV UI.
  • We need voice input for textboxes if UWP for xbox is gonna take off.