Microsoft: A fix is coming for Surface Duo Xbox Cloud Gaming features
What you need to know
- Surface Duo is Microsoft’s Android phone with two screens.
- The Surface Duo line supports a unique feature with Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming, allowing a second display to act as a touch gamepad.
- Unfortunately, this feature has been broken for some time, but Microsoft says a fix is on the way.
One of the best unique features of the Surface Duo is its implementation of Xbox Game Pass. On Surface Duo or a Surface Duo 2encompassing Xbox Game Pass app on both screens turns it into a Nintendo DS-like experience, giving you a gamepad on the bottom screen.
This is great primarily because it removes the touch controls from the screen, meaning your thumbs are no longer obscuring the game. Xbox games are general no designed with phones in mind, and the Surface Duo’s unique form factor went a long way toward solving this problem with Xbox Cloud Gaming titles. or at least, it is.
For several weeks now, Xbox Game Pass has been broken on the Surface Duo line. The second screen functionality disappeared in an update a while ago, and recently the app itself won’t even launch at all in some cases. You can grab the Xbox Game Pass (Beta) app as a temporary solution, but that doesn’t solve the missing dual screen functionality. What’s more, you can’t use the Xbox Remote Play features on the Surface Duo either, probably as a result of the same bugs. Fortunately, Microsoft is working on a fix.
In a statement to Windows Central, a Microsoft spokesperson said that an update will fix this issue, hopefully very soon.
“Microsoft is aware that Surface Duo 2 users are experiencing issues using Remote Play and the second screen experience with Xbox Cloud Gaming. The team is investigating the issue and working on a fix in the coming days.”
The Surface Duo is a truly unique smartphone in a world of boring rectangles, bringing additional functionality and multitasking capabilities that other devices simply aren’t capable of. Even the more popular Galaxy Fold line falls short when it comes to using apps in parallel, given that regardless of which app is currently in focus, the keyboard will still switch while you’re trying to work. I recently tried using the Galaxy Fold 3 as the only device with a Bluetooth keyboard to cover an event and found it to be quite a pain when trying to do anything beyond the basics. With the Duo 2’s independent displays, it was far easier to work on one display without interfering with the content on the other, which I found to be a vastly improved workflow.
I’ll have a larger article with some of my experience switching to the Surface Duo 2 in the coming days, but it’s encouraging to see Microsoft’s willingness to fix what is very likely a very low feature for current Duo users. But I, for one, will be happy to see it return, as one of the Xbox Cloud Gaming faithful.
Microsoft recently announced a ton of new Surface products and features, so be sure to check out ours A preview of the recent Surface event right here.
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