Playing Xbox Game Pass games on your Android device via the cloud streaming feature is one of the coolest features of the service. And using it yourself is really quite easy. This guide will walk you through the necessary steps to play games on your device so you can enjoy them even when you’re away from your console or PC. Even if you’ve been subscribing to Game Pass for years, if you’re not sure how to access the Game Pass library on your phone, this could be helpful to you as well. But first, we’ll go over the benefits of playing the games in the cloud. So let’s dive in.
Why Xbox Game Pass for Android is an awesome feature
It sells itself, really. If you like games, Game Pass is one of the best values around. Giving you unlimited access to all those games for a single monthly fee. But Microsoft understands that sometimes you may want to game and not be at home. That’s why it came up with the cloud gaming feature for Game Pass. This lets you access a ton of the games that Game Pass offers from your mobile device as long as you have an internet connection. Which is pretty darn cool. Not only that, but since it’s tied to your Xbox account, all of your progress is saved. And you can still play with friends and unlock achievements. All-in-all it’s a high value feature that lets you continue playing games just about anywhere.
How to play Xbox Game Pass games on your Android device
Honestly, playing games on your Android device through the Xbox Game Pass service is quite easy. There’s not too many steps, but we’ll walk you through it anyway so you can familiarize yourself with the process.
Install the Game Pass app
For starters, you’ll need to install the Xbox Game Pass app on your Android device. As this is how you’ll access the service from it and eventually play games. The app of course is free, and can be picked up directly from the Play Store.
Sign into or create a Microsoft account
You should already have one if you’re using Game Pass on a PC or on console. But on the off chance you don’t have one, you’ll need to create one. If you already have one set up, then just sign into it through the Game Pass app and you can move on.
Tap on the “Cloud” tag in the games library
While Game Pass as a whole has more than 100 games available, not all of them are available on the cloud. So to make things easier for yourself, simply tap on the “cloud” tab in the game library to filter the list. This will narrow things down to only the games which have cloud compatibility.
Find a game and tap play
From here, all you need to do is find a game and tap the play button. Pretty self explanatory right?
Connect a Bluetooth controller or other compatible gamepad
Xbox Game Pass on Android does support touch controls. But trust when we say that you probably don’t want to experience games that way. They’re best played with a controller. And thankfully Game Pass works with a variety of options. You can use the official Xbox Wireless controllers, or even options like the Razer Kishi. You can also use something like the DualShock 4 or likely the DualSense, or the ROG Kunai 3 if you have a ROG Phone. The point is, you have plenty of options, and portable ones at that. Also worth noting is that many games on Game Pass don’t have touch control support. So for some of the ones you want to play the most, a controller may be required. So you may as well have one anyway.
Other things you’ll need
That’s pretty much it when it comes to playing Xbox Game Pass games on Android. At least when it comes to the steps to initiate gameplay. You do however need one more thing to gain access. And that’s a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Microsoft offers three tiers of Game Pass. Console, PC, and then Ultimate which is a combination of the two, plus additional perks that neither of the other two have. One of those perks being cloud gaming. This costs $14.99 a month. But if you’ve never signed up for Game Pass Ultimate before, you should still be able to get a promotion which discounts it.
