After years of feeling like a half-finished companion, the Xbox mobile app has finally grown up: Microsoft has built the full digital store and wishlist into the phone experience, so you can now buy games directly from your mobile, just in time for the biggest Christmas discounts.
For years, opening the Xbox app on your phone has been a slightly frustrating experience. The integration of Xbox and Game Pass helped bring the ecosystem together on mobile, but several core features were still missing for the app to feel truly complete. You could check your friends’ list, manage screenshots, and even remotely start installing games on your console, yet you could not actually purchase titles. That absence made the official app feel like an unfinished tool, but with the latest beta update, Microsoft has finally started to close that gap.
The Xbox Mobile App Finally Gets A Full Store
The situation was largely driven by the rules and fees imposed by Apple and Google on their own app stores, which forced Microsoft to avoid classic in-app purchases and instead push users toward a web browser. Now things have changed. As reported by XboxEra, the latest version of the app, which is already rolling out to Beta users, introduces the full Xbox Store interface as well as full wishlist integration on both Android and iOS.
This means you no longer need to jump through hoops or turn on your console just to complete a transaction. Within the refreshed interface, you can search for a game, open its product page, and most importantly, buy it directly from the app with only a couple of taps. The arrival of the wishlist has also been warmly welcomed by the community, since it lets players track desired titles and strike when prices drop during promotions.
The timing could hardly be better. Winter sales are scheduled to run until December 18, and The Game Awards 2025 are just around the corner, so adding full mobile purchasing right now is a well-timed boost for Xbox users. Although Microsoft has clearly taken its time, it appears the technical and legal hurdles have finally been cleared, turning this step into a key milestone in the broader Xbox strategy that insists the ecosystem must live on every device.
The overarching goal is simple: to let players enjoy their games wherever they have a solid internet connection. To use cloud gaming, you still need an active Xbox Game Pass subscription, but buying and owning digital titles through the app does not require any kind of membership. In other words, the mobile store move benefits both players who rely on the cloud and those who prefer traditional digital libraries.
At the same time, Microsoft keeps expanding the lineup of titles that support Xbox Cloud Gaming. Whenever a game you buy is cloud-enabled, it can be played directly from your phone, tablet, or PC as long as you have a Game Pass subscription. Taken together, this update does not just make it easier to spend money on new games; it also pushes Xbox one step closer to its vision of letting you access your library practically anywhere.
Source: 3djuegos
