This is Microsoft's new Xbox app for PC gamers on Windows 10

Microsoft is building a brand new Xbox app from the ground up for Windows 10 PCs that features the ability to download and install PC games that are part of Xbox Game Pass. The app is a Win32 program that's been rebuilt from the ground up with social and game discovery in mind.

Codenamed Garrison, the app has leaked in beta form before a public announcement likely taking place at E3. The initial beta showcases Xbox Game Pass, the ability to download and install Game Pass games available on PC directly from within the new Xbox app, and social features allowing you to chat with Xbox friends via text or voice. It does appear the app is electron, meaning its performance is rather slow and is a frequent memory hog.

It appears Microsoft is planning to replace the old UWP Xbox app with this new Win32 one. It's very pretty, featuring Fluent Design acrylic effects and borderless design. The app is listed in the Microsoft Store (opens in new tab) but it's showing as not available yet. So for now, we've embedded screenshots to showcase it in all its glory.

Update: 6/10/19: The app in the Microsoft Store is now available to download

Are you interested in trying out the new Xbox app? Let us know in the comments.

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Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter: @zacbowden.

51 Comments

I'm confused... Why replace a UWP with a win32 app that will be slower and unable to include UWP apps?
People saying it's electron. Which makes sense for cross platform.
It can obviously include UWP apps from the screenshot. Win32 apps can already launch UWP ones, and Win32 apps are definitely faster than UWP ones. Less buggy too, crashes happen way less. UWP is just bad overall. I've downloaded the new one, it's sooo much smoother. It's also nice to be able to click on my friends list and it not go "We are unable to show your friends at the moment. Try refreshing the app." 90% of the time.
That's very misinformed. Electron is noticeably heavier and less efficient than a decent native UWA. They likely went this direction in order to go cross platform (i.e., bring this app to older versions of Windows) rather than restricting it to just Windows 10 with a faster UWP. This win32 application can and will likely incorporate UWP tools for better integration on Windows 10. That said, the old Xbox app was absolutely atrocious, but that wasn't the fault of UWP. It was trying to do everything and more, and that dragged it down as a whole. Both the design and performance suffered. This new app appears to be much more streamlined in terms of features, but the duplication of social features is surprising.
"and Win32 apps are definitely faster than UWP ones. Less buggy too, crashes happen way less. UWP is just bad overall" ... that's totally misleading, you're just bull s***tting on UWP
You must have a very special unique computer for an app that eats 500MB to 1GB of RAM and 100% of a CPU core just to handle its UI to be more efficient than one that used 100MB of RAM and had a DirectX-accelerated UI...
Yeah your definitely confused alright cuz uwp apps are infinitely slower than win32 programs. Most people refuse to use uwp apps because of how slow they are I have a top of the line pc I buikt 2 weeks ago I can run any game out now on the highest setting across the board with no issue at all but opening uwp Netflix of mail takes ages. I don't download anything from win store because of that.
Something is very wrong with your PC or internet connection then, because I can assure you the Netflix app (and all the others) open very swiftly on my high end desktop, my mid range but really old laptop, and my old Toshiba atom based tablet and even my Lumia 950XL. Lol, your new build desktop is slower at opening apps than my atom tablet and Windows phone. Definitely a problem there, time to check your new build very carefully.
My Lumia 950 running a hacked full 64bit Windows on ARM doesn't have issues opening a UWP.
No one can take you seriously with your ridiculous blanket statement. You have a crappy PC if it takes you that long to open apps.
Or he installed something that broke his PC.
Ever heard of Steam VR slowing down Windows Mixed Reality Portal?
Yeah probably something up with your pc. I use UWP apps like mail and Netflix all the time with no issues
Microsoft has recently started that they are moving away from UWP apps, so it makes sense that they would start to migrate their own apps. Plus, since this is an electron app it can be easily transferred to other platforms (Mac, Windows 7, Linux). I can imagine a lot of Xbox users might want to chat with their friends from their MacBook.
They're not "moving away" from it, it's changing over time as they've discussed. Everyone takes it as a negative.
Electron can run inside a UWP wrapper and use UWP features.
Because UWP is dead.
All that grey makes it look absolutely horrid.
Those glass effects would look much better on a properly Dark Themed pallet. One that uses black instead of grey.
Looks like they're bringing some very Dashboard-esque elements like the top nav elements and the card-filled feed like on the One's current UI. I like it, but I'm not sold on it quite yet, functionality-wise. And worst too is that the app still crashes on W10 Mobile, which I know is dying soon, but still.
They won't fix it for Windows 10 Mobile, it's an unsupported platform.
Welp, guess once it launches out of beta I'll finally be WoA-ing my 950 xl.
I did that to my 950. My XL unfortunately is very, very dead.
Not quite yet. Still going until end of year I thought?
Just for security updates and occasional bug fixes. The platform is essentially dead.
First time hearing that bloat is now called 'electron'. Just call it bloated or bloatware? Electrons are usually not slow.
I hope that's a joke.
It's a joke. It's playing with words. Steam is fast, and Electron is slow. It is very funny. Well, slightly funny anyway.
We make steam to push electrons in the power plant I work in.... 😜
Electron is a development platform.
Don't tell Daniel that it's not UWP!
I'm not a fan of the design. The title bar is just randomly filled with icons, menus, and a search bar.
> frequent memory hog If Electron is giving you RAM trouble you need a new PC. 32 GB RAM on each of my 2 main PCs
32GB of RAM is not standard.
16 should be for anyone with 600EUR+ PC. Especially now that memory prices are at their all time low.
Getting more ram does not reduce the usage of any particular poorly made app relative to well made apps. Back in the 8bit days people knew how code. Today, the lazy coders are legion.
You shouldn't need 32gb Ram for a basic app.
>not UWP
not surprised, just frustrated
They need to reach more than windows 10 PC's, so it makes sense
The install link leaked on twitter I now have it installed and its running. digging around the app im enjoying the new design. I do hope it integrates better with other games I have installed on my pc. currently its not seeing anything but gamespass games. which I dont have installed lol. to my surprise.
State of Decay 2 is grand you're missing out
There seems to be a lot of confusion about how this application is built. UWP is garbage. Microsoft knows that, and it's the reason they are killing it off. The only reason they created UWP was in an attempt to lock users and developers into their Windows store ecosystem. It didn't work. It's part of the reason why Age of Empires Definitive editions are now coming to Steam. As for Electron, it's not a bad tool. Yes it uses a lot of memory, but that's because it loads a full browser engine into memory. It's a trade-off for cross compatibility. That being said, it doesn't mean the entire application is running in the browser engine. Microsoft likely built the all the logic in .Net Core and is only using Electron as the UI frontend. It's actually a very good way (and very fast) to do it.
It's not "the only reason". Quit making blanket statements you know nothing about.
Hmm, many UI elements look outdated with huge google Material influence. Taskbar icon is horrible. I even can't say is it Xbox app or slightly updated epic game store.
One thing many haven’t noticed is that it still uses windows store to download all your games. If you start a download on new Xbox app and open windows store, you’ll see the game downloading through the windows store.
The US store requires a code but the Dutch one allows you to download. OMEGALUL
Is this not compatible with WoA? It's telling me that it can't update windows. Maybe it's the crappy wifi here.
Apparently the Store app isn't. Ridiculous.
I doubt any current ARM chips would have the grunt to get much benefit from a game pass, even if the games were all ported to ARM. Later on, when more games are based on the ported unity engine (ie UWP), and the chipsets are more powerful, it might make more sense. But right now, most of those games would be running emulated, on chipsets without all that much GPU power.
Yeah, I know it couldn't run the games, but no app either?
This looks amazing. The new edge browser is starting to look great too I hope they port this UI style to all windows stock apps like Mail/Calendar. So much better then the blocky huge UI we have now.
I knew there would be a load of UWP comments here. Look at it this way; people who buy the gaming pass aren't going to be using windows lite, hololens, or hub. They are going to be people running some form of conventional windows. Electron does run in a UWP wrapper, so likely the store version will be a hybrid (ie desktop bridge).
I installed it July 5th. The download speeds of the games are erratic. I have a 200mps connection and the downloads through this platform vary in speed. For example , Shadow of War is downloading at a speed that fluctuates between 15mbps to 75mbps. It usually hovers at about 70mbps for the most part. This doesn't happen to me on Steam , Origin, Unreal, or Bethesda launcher. Yes, my pc is up to date with software patches as the Xbox (beta) client forced a mandatory update.

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