The Kodi app for Xbox One is coming, but still a way off

By Richard Devine
last updated

Since Kodi first announced that there would be a proper UWP version of its app for Windows 10 and Xbox One, there's been a lot of interest. Understandably. The team has now issued an update on progress and while there's nothing imminently heading our way, things are moving in the right direction.

From the latest developer blog:

You might wonder where the UWP version is that a lot of you are longing for so they can run it on their Xbox One? All we can say is that it is being worked on and work is slowly progressing. Getting Kodi running as 64-bit is actually a big step towards UWP because it involved the same external libraries issue that needed to be solved and compiled.However on top of that we have to change or remove over 800 function calls that are not permitted or unavailable and those need to be solved for having a functional application. So for now there's no UWP yet. Should this change we will be the first to let you know.

The news comes alongside the announcement that from version 18, Leia, Kodi will be available as a full 64-bit application for Windows. In the quest for UWP, this was also an important step as detailed in the quote above.

So we need to be patient and wait a little longer. But the Kodi team is pretty transparent when it comes to updates on what they're working on, and they're committed to making a UWP version happen. We can't wait for the day it arrives.

Kodi 18 Leia: Everything you need to know

Richard Devine
Richard Devine
Managing Editor - Tech, Reviews

Richard Devine is a Managing Editor at Windows Central with over a decade of experience. A former Project Manager and long-term tech addict, he joined Mobile Nations in 2011 and has been found on Android Central and iMore as well as Windows Central. Currently, you'll find him steering the site's coverage of all manner of PC hardware and reviews. Find him on Mastodon at mstdn.social/@richdevine

10 Comments
  • So, they mention 800 function calls, but is that 800 *different* function calls or 800 calls that won't compile into UWP? I get that both are a lot of work, but I'm just curious if for every one function call that they update, maybe it'll allow them to easily update another 10 or something like that.
  • Way over my head. The way I read it is that those 800 aren't allowed in UWP for whatever reason so they either remove or change them. Developing is hard, I'm glad those guys are way smarter than I am.
  • If 10 function calls relied on 1, I would imagine they would state that they only needed to update 80. I would also really hope that each function produces unique outputs, otherwise it would be really crappy programmers, performing duplicate work. And I really don't believe that is the case with kodi.
  • Que bien, seguro funcionara en arm x64. Sera maravilloso.
  • Is there any chance to know how many libraries are missing to complete the transition from win32 to UWP? I know win32 got YEARS to become how it is now.
  • Seems a lot more difficult than Microsoft makes it out to be. I remember reading about some mech game that devs were trying to bring to Xbox One from Steam. I think it took them at a minimum of 6 months of extraneous work to complete with Microsoft's engineers helping them.
  • Suppose it depends on the type of app, but yeah, it doesn't sound like it's easy for everyone. Thankfully, at least for the good of the Store, there are other ways.
  • While you're waiting for Kodi, check out the UWP SomaFM app.  Commercial-free music.
  • This also brings light over the problem with UWP. It has an incomplete, immature API. Developers should not be worried about this crap, instead they have to realize first there is no certain API, change it or beg Microsoft to implement it, wait a long time and then, if implemented, use it.
  • Most of those API calls are not supported for security reasons. To call this "immature" is immature. Developers first and foremost should adapt to their environment, and should accomodate their architecture to be able to swap out parts; every time this rule is being acted against, it gives us proprietary crap like ActiveX or Flash in the browser.