Help test the new Game Bar Beta, including integration with Spotify, Xbox, and lots of other new features!

Hey everyone!

We are excited to begin beta testing several new features for Game bar on Windows 10. The Game bar is a gaming overlay built into Windows that works over any PC game and can be brought up quickly by pressing the Windows key plus G (Win+G). Game bar connects PC players together in all games to share their best moments without leaving or interrupting the game.

For more details on all of the features you can try right now, check out our Xbox News post.

Today we pushed out a new Game bar beta update to everyone in the Windows Gaming insider group. In this update, we've added a new Looking for Group widget! You can use this widget to find, chat, and play with others who share your objectives, communication preferences, and playstyle. For the purposes of testing, we're limiting it to top multiplayer games (see full list below). Be sure to tell us what other games you'd like added!

Also with this update, you can now copy and paste images into chats in the Xbox Social - Chats widget. Great for sharing a screenshot right after you take it!

As always, we're eager to hear what you think! Big thanks to everyone who has given feedback through the Feedback Hub and the Game bar Idea Drive.


How to get access to the Game bar beta

1. Launch the Xbox Insider Hub on your Windows 10 PC – if you don’t have it, get it from the Windows 10 store.
2. Select Insider Content in the upper left
3. Select "Windows Gaming". If you are on Window 10 build# 17763 or higher, you will be automatically enrolled into the Game bar flight
4. Press Win+G in any game to bring up Game bar and have fun!
   
   
   

Let us know what you think via the Feedback Hub or in the Game bar Idea Drive, and thanks for your help!

Update Highlights

• New widget: Looking for Group
  • Create and filter posts based on game mode, communication preferences, skill level, language, and more!
  • Find others to play with right now, or choose a specific date and time, up to a week in advance.
  • For the purposes of testing, we're limiting it to top multiplayer games (see full list below). Be sure to tell us what other games you'd like added!
  • Due to the limited number of beta testers, you may have difficulty finding posts for certain games. Don't let that stop you from creating your own post, however! Get the ball rolling. :) Still, for best results, we recommend you try Looking for Group with Apex Legends, Fortnite, Forza Horizon 4, Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War 4, Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and State of Decay 2.

• Looking for Group games list
  • Anthem
  • Apex Legends
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  • Crackdown 3: Campaign
  • Destiny 2
  • Fortnite
  • Forza Horizon 4
  • Forza Horizon 3
  • Forza Motorsport 7
  • Gears of War 4
  • Halo Wars: Definitive Edition
  • Halo Wars 2
  • League of Legends
  • Minecraft
  • Minecraft for Windows 10
  • Overwatch
  • PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
  • ROBLOX
  • Rocket League
  • Sea of Thieves
  • State of Decay 2
  • Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
  • Tom Clancy's The Division 2

• Xbox Social - Chats
  • You can now paste images into Xbox Social - Chats!
  • You can even drag and drop images into the widget if you've pinned it.

Known Issues

Pardon our dust because this is truly a beta, with all sorts of technical wonders along the way. As you journey into the beta, here are known issues you might encounter.

• General
  • Game bar now pops its own notifications for messages, invites, and other events. Currently, the Xbox app also does this. To avoid double notifications, and to help test Game bar, disable notifications from the Xbox app. To do this, 1) Press the Windows key, 2) type “notifications” and select “Notifications & action settings”, 3) scroll down and turn off notifications for both “Xbox” and “Xbox (beta)” if present.
  • Not all text has been localized for all regions.
  • Some widgets and controls don’t yet have accessibility options.
  • Game bar may crash when receiving notifications on x86 computers. If this happens, please let us know in the comments of this post.
  • Variable refresh rate technology (such as Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync) will be temporarily disabled when Game bar is up (or if you’ve pinned a widget). We are working with Nvidia and AMD to resolve this issue in the May 2019 Windows update.

• Looking for Group
  • Looking for Group posts will only show up to 4 tags, even when you expanded the post. This will be fixed in the next update.
    
  • You cannot create a Looking for Group post without signing in (the button will do nothing).

• Audio
  • Changing your audio output device in the Audio widget will not change it for voice chats. Workaround: Change the audio input and output devices for voice chats by clicking the gear (settings) icon in the voice chat control in the Chats widget.
    
    
• Broadcast & capture
  • No known issues

• Performance
  • No known issues

• Captures
  • When creating a meme image with overlay text, the text does not have a black outline. We’re still working on it!

• Spotify
  • Spotify widget might not respond if it’s controlling other devices or used for hours at a time. Workaround: Close the widget and then open again.
  • Spotify app may not launch in the background if launched through Game bar. Workaround: Launch Spotify before using the Spotify widget in Game bar.
  • Spotify does not use Light Theme. This is by design because Spotify does not use Light Theme in their app.

• Xbox Social
  • Friends do not show icons to indicate they are joinable in multiplayer or voice chat. Your friends aren’t ignoring you—join them from the right-click menu.
  • The Xbox Social widget can’t be pinned yet.
  • Some errors and empty lists are missing help text.

• Xbox Social - Chats
  • When you join the voice chat of a one-on-one conversation, the other person won’t be notified. Workaround: Send a message in the text conversation asking the other person to join you in voice. If the other person is on Xbox One, they can do this by going to your profile and joining your party.
  • Multi-line messages aren’t yet supported. Apologies to all aspiring ASCII-artists.
  • You may see brief loading spinners when moving between conversations.
  • If there are more than four people in a conversation, select “View people” button at the top of the conversation to see everyone.

Reporting bugs

If you find other bugs, you can submit a bug report directly through Game bar using these steps:

1. Press "Win+G" to open Game bar
2. Click on the Settings icon (gear) in the bar at the top
3. Select the "Feedback" tab, then click on the "Game bar feedback" link, which will open the Feedback Hub app
4. In the Feedback Hub, tell us about the bug you found (it helps us if you include "Game bar" in the description)

Thank you for your help! The team is looking forward to your feedback. Enjoy the new Game bar update and let us know what you like, what we can improve, and what you want next!