XMBC Foundation announces new UWP project

Feb 9, 2017 10:54 GMT  ·  By

XMBC Foundation announced that Kodi media center app would become available for Windows 10 users as UWP app, adding among others support for Xbox One gaming console.

Kodi becoming a universal app can only be good news for Windows 10 users, especially because this is one of the best media center solutions currently available. Kodi can be downloaded as a Win32 program, and it’s also published in the Store as a port created with Project Centennial, but a full universal app with support for Xbox One will provide native support for the new OS.

There’s still no target date for the release of Kodi, but it’s also worth mentioning that the upcoming app, although it’ll be universal, won’t support Windows 10 Mobile, but only PCs and gaming consoles.

And in the case of Xbox One, this is one big launch, as getting Kodi to work on the console can already be done, but with more complex steps that, for many, could prove to be troublesome.

The existing store version

Previously known as XMBC Media Center, Kodi can turn a Windows 10 PC into a fully-featured media center, and the simple fact that it arrives in the store as universal app makes it possible to be installed on devices where Win32 programs would be restricted, such as those powered by the upcoming Windows 10 Cloud.

The official description published in the Windows Store provides more information on the existing version of the media center solution, but there’s a good chance that the UWP release would add new features to take advantage of Windows 10 capabilities:

“It uses a 10-foot user interface designed to be a media player for the living-room, using a remote control as the primary input device. Its graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to easily browse and view videos, photos, podcasts, and music from a harddrive, optical disc, local network, and the internet using only a few buttons.”

If you want to give Kodi a try right now before the UWP arrives, you can download either the Windows Store version or the Win32 flavor.