Microsoft’s Xbox One entertainment console has many great features for gamers. It can record video or take photos just by voice command. Xbox Live got Hubs for gamers, a feature aimed at encouraging communities. There was one important feature that the Xbox One didn’t have until recently. You can’t play music in the background on Xbox One.
Only Microsoft knows why the feature didn’t make its way into the console’s original software or any updates that have been rolled out since. For years, Microsoft’s solution to this problem has been app Snapping. Most of the apps available on the Xbox Store allow users to snap an app to the edge of their screen. Groove Music and many other audio apps used Snap to make their apps play audio during a gaming session.
Starting with the August Xbox One Update for Xbox One and Xbox One S, players can listen to all kinds of audio while playing their game. What’s more, they don’t have to take up a third of their screen with a closed app.
Apps That Can Play Background Music on Xbox One
To allow background music playing on Xbox One, Microsoft had to rethink how it handled sound. This was not possible before because an app had to be visible in order for users to receive audio or video. That changed with the Summer Update for Xbox One.
Launched in late July, the upgrade adds playback controls to the Xbox Guide and allows developers to make apps that can play in the background. Any app maker can create an app that lets you play music in the background on Xbox One. Unfortunately, many apps made specifically for Xbox One will not work at this time, as apps need to be updated by their developers before they can play music in the background.
Today, Groove Music allows users to play music during a game, but it needs to be broken. Soon, it will be upgraded with background play so users can play music without keeping the app open and sticking it on their screen. This updated version of Groove Music is available to Xbox Preview Program members today. Microsoft says it will be available to everyone in the not too distant future.
Cast is another Xbox One app that allows users to play music in the background on Xbox One. It is also available to members of the Xbox Preview Program. Search for these update apps in the Store on your console. If you don’t see them, it’s because Microsoft hasn’t made them publicly available yet.
Microsoft combined the Xbox Store with the Windows Store, which it uses on notebooks, desktops and tablets. More apps are coming, with support for background audio playback; you can be sure of that.
How to Play Background Music on Xbox One
To play background music on Xbox One, you need to open an app that supports the feature and choose something to play. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ve downloaded the Groove Music app, now available to Xbox Preview members and coming soon to everyone.
Download the app that supports background sound from the Windows Store. Again, this could be Groove Music or another app available in the stores updated for Xbox One and Windows 10.
Open the app – Groove Music in our case – and choose a sound to play. Instead of trying to grab the app as you normally would, simply press the glowing Xbox logo on your controller to get back to the home screen. Now open the second app or game you want to play. That is all.
As with the Xbox 360, the playback controls for background sound aren’t always readily available. To access them, you need to double-press the Xbox logo on your controller to open the Xbox Guide. The first thing you should see when the guide opens are the play, pause, rewind and skip buttons.
There is no way to select a new playlist from Contacts. To do this, you need to open the app where you are playing music in the background in full screen mode and select another one. Microsoft says that playing music in the background should not harm the performance of your games in any way. This was something not true about the old Snap mechanic, which forced users to open an app and a game or two at the same time.
You don’t need Groove Music Pass to play background music on Xbox One. Microsoft allows anyone to store music in the OneDrive Music folder for playback with any Groove Music client, whether it’s on a phone, tablet, laptop, or Xbox One.
