Whilst there are over 20 million players using the Xbox cloud gaming service (according to Microsoft), there is still no official app for Google TV (or Android TV, upon which Google TV is built). That doesn’t mean it’s not possible to enjoy Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on your big screen, though. You can get started by following these simple steps!
Whilst the steps to follow may be simple, there are quite a few of them. The good news is that once you have done it, it’s done. It isn’t something you need to do every time you want to play.
Downloader
The very first thing that you will need to do is download an app called… Downloader. As Xbox Game Pass Ultimate isn’t available from the Google Play Store, Downloader will help you to download the app from another source.
This is the simplest step, as all you need to do is search for Downloader in the Play Store on your Google TV.
Give Permissions
You will need to allow apps to be installed from unknown sources. To do this, we first need to enable developer options.
- Go to settings and select About.
- Scroll down to Android TV OS Build
- Click this 7 times. The first couple of times it will look as though nothing is happening, but then it notifies you that you are ‘3 steps away’ which indicates the number of clicks remaining. You will see a confirmation box telling you that you have developer access.
- Important Side Note! If you are having trouble finding the below settings. You may be on an updated version of Android. Both the Chromecast With Google TV and Onn TV devices are now updated to Android 12. You can then Skip steps 4 and 5 and you’ll be automatically asked to approve unknown sources when you attempt to install the apk in the next section.)
Original Instructions: Next, go back to either the main settings menu of the apps settings sub menu and scroll down and select Security and Restrictions. - Press the okay button again, and you should see a toggle to allow Downloader to install apps from unknown sources.
You have now done all the groundwork. You are ready to download and install Xbox Game Pass.
Download The APK
Important note: You want to download the Xbox Game Pass app – NOT the main Xbox app.
Option one: If you already have an APK site that you know and trust, you can enter the URL once you launch Downloader. This will take you to the site where you can search for Xbox Game Pass, to download and install it.
Option two: If not, instead of entering a URL, simply search for ‘Xbox Game Pass APK’ on downloader. This will return Google search results of different sites to download from. I recommend using APK Mirror, but there are plenty of trustworthy options out there.
After you follow the onscreen instructions, you will be good to go. Now you just need to sign in to your Xbox account and enjoy some cloud gaming!
Caveats
As we noted above, this application is not developed with the TV in mind and not optimized for TV hardware. So, you might run into issues or reduced performance from what you’ll likely see in an official app when it comes. But, it does work and let you play Xbox Cloud games on a Chromecast with Google TV, NVIDIA Shield or other Google TV and Android TV device.
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