Xbox is about to get better apps and web games

01.11.2023 - 17:49 / theverge.com / Tom Warren

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

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If you’ve ever used an Xbox media app and wondered why it was a little slow, clunky, or didn’t have the latest features you find on the equivalent web-based version, then hopefully that will be a thing of the past soon.

Microsoft is finally allowing Xbox app developers to use the Chromium-powered version of Edge to improve their apps. Support for Microsoft Edge’s WebView2 on Xbox is now available, allowing Xbox media app developers to embed the latest web technologies inside Xbox apps and improve performance.

Developers have been previewing this support for months, and it has been a highly requested feature, according to Microsoft. Streaming app STARZ is one of the first to utilize WebView2, but we’re hoping to see others work this into their media apps and lightweight games on Xbox in the coming months.

While Xbox owners have long had access to the Chromium version of Edge, developers have been stuck using the older version of Edge behind the scenes. The new Microsoft Edge WebView2 control uses the Chromium-based Edge rendering engine instead of Microsoft’s older EdgeHTML browser engine.

This WebView2 control supports embedding web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into Xbox apps, so we’re likely to see more HTML5 games appear on Xbox in the future, too. Microsoft has even created a MakeCode app that has games embedded, thanks to the WebView2 control.

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