New Xbox Wireless Display app brings PC streaming to Xbox One

By Matt Brown
published

Microsoft's new Wireless Display app for Xbox One brings native Miracast streaming for PC games and video.

Xbox One S Console

Xbox One S Console (Image credit: Windows Central)

Microsoft has debuted its new and improved Wireless Display app for Xbox One (opens in new tab), bringing cable-free PC streaming to its home console. While formerly tied in development, amid to several years of Xbox Insider Program testing, its surprise rollout brings a wave of new functionality for PC owners.

First detailed via Microsoft's Inside Xbox live show, the new Wireless Display is now available for free on the Microsoft Store. Hooking into the Miracast display standard, projecting your PC with Windows + P mirrors on-screen content on your Xbox One.

Although best suited for entertainment and screen-sharing, Microsoft is also pushing its gaming capabilities – bringing PC games to your Xbox One. It supports games from all storefronts including Steam-purchased games, only restricting protected video content like Netflix or Hulu.

The new Wireless Display app features the choice of full controller use, remotely controlling your desktop, laptop, or tablet with an on-screen thumbstick-controlled cursor. However, the Xbox One's native mouse and keyboard support seemingly doesn't translate, requiring the use of your device's own input.

The app is a handy companion for most Xbox One owners, however, falters similarly to other wireless technologies. Latency is still a significant hurdle, far from an ideal experience beyond casual browsing and video. But for quick and seamless screen broadcasting, the Wireless Display app's return is worth a try.

Cut the cable

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Wireless Display

Stream your PC to Xbox with ease.

The new Wireless Display app for Xbox One brings full PC streaming for games, video, and much more.

Matt Brown
Matt Brown

Matt Brown was formerly a Windows Central's Senior Editor, Xbox & PC, at Future. Following over seven years of professional consumer technology and gaming coverage, he’s focused on the world of Microsoft's gaming efforts. You can follow him on Twitter @mattjbrown.

18 Comments
  • So they say it supports steam games, but they haven't figured out the latency issue? Has anyone tested out gaming with the app yet? I'm curious
  • I'm sure it will have the same problems as existing solutions. I have a Steam Link I don't use because of latency issues. Seems like this streaming only works well over ethernet.
  • Getting an error when trying to grab it from the store. :(
  • Need to be on a 19H1 Build the minimum is
    18288.0 or higher.
  • So they don’t allow you to stream from the Xbox to the app on you phone, but they expect you to have both Gaming PC and XBOX? Yeah, that “totally” makes sens, right
  • You can stream from your Xbox to your phone with a 3rd party app but yeah they don't have anything on their official app. I don't know if they just want to leave it to 3rd party or they are working on it but it's already possible and works quite well.
  • Probably just waiting for Xcloud.
  • Xbox beta app let's you stream Xbox to phone been doing it for a while. Was originally limited to Windows phones. Works awesome over cellular network. Was looking butt in ki
  • Wait, you think its weird to mirror a PC screen to a TV? It's not. And if you can mirror a PC screen to a TV, I would find it nonsensical to not try and support playing games. The two functions are closely related. I'd find it weird trying to force Xbox controls onto a tiny mobile screen where the whole game was designed assuming you can see the whole thing, but now would lose about 30% of real estate area to controls. How does that make sense?
  • Not a whole lot of details. What are the latency issues? I have both my PC and Xbox on the same wired network and so there would not be a physical latency issue as they have single digit ms pings. Is the latency issue a software problem Microsoft hasn't worked out yet?
  • The article made a point of cable-free streaming, so its likely latency due to wireless. You'll likely not experience as much latency as others if both are wired. Its the same scenario for the Steam Link. Wirelessly it's not that great, but wired, its a bit more useable.
  • I can't get it to work. it cast to my tv but clicking things runs it on my pc but won't do anything on my xbox one x.
  • It looks like it's not ready yet. It keeps trying to connect, then it drops. Xbox One X & Galaxy S10+.
  • EDIT: HA! Works perfectly with my Lumia 950 though! I even started "Patch Tuesday" through Continum!
  • This is about streaming from a PC to an Xbox. You seem to be talking about Xbox to phone, which is something else.
  • There were other articles that stated Android as well as PC. Since it's just Miracast, it should work, however the app is still in beta. But if you have a Windows Phone device that supports Continum and miracast then it should work. From Microsoft: "Mirror your Android games to your TV so your friends can watch
    "
  • As I understand it though, Google has removed Miracast from Android. If you have it, it is because the OEM, like Samsung, added it. I don't have the option on my Pixels, but did on my Nexus phones. So, varied and inconsistent support?
  • Has anyone used this yet? I was trying to test it out but because I use dual monitors, when i Windows+p it just brings up methods for managing my two connected monitors...