Xbox Cloud Gaming will let you invite friends with just a link

As part of its February Xbox update, Microsoft is making it easier to invite your friends to an Xbox Cloud Gaming session by letting you generate shareable links. You can send the link through an Xbox message or by copying it to your clipboard for pasting into any messaging app you want. Players can accept the invite on a supported PC or mobile web browser and jump in right away or receive a code to enter on any TVs or streaming devices with Xbox gaming features.

Willing participants must have an Xbox account, with some games requiring an active Game Pass Ultimate subscription. It also requires each player to have an “entitlement” to the game, presumably by owning it outright or having access through Game Pass or a free-play period. You can invite as many friends as the game allows and revoke access to the link at any time. Some games will also allow you to remove unwanted players from your session.

This new feature arrives as part of the continued expansion of Xbox Cloud Gaming, which recently added the ability to stream your own games on your Xbox console or on mobile, PC, and TVs. (Previously, you could only stream select Game Pass titles.) That feature launched with 50 supported titles, but Microsoft recently expanded it with about half a dozen, including notable additions like Blasphemous II, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Subnautica.