As of writing, Groove on Xbox One is simply a rebranded version of the previous Xbox Music app. Like many older Xbox One apps, Xbox Music was, at least in part, optimized for use with Kinect gestures which have since been removed from the platform entirely.
Groove community manager Ellen Kilbourne told me earlier today that the UWP version of Groove would be making its way over to Xbox One to replace the current app.
While the current Xbox One version of Groove does have some excellent features, such as music videos, it's missing a lot of the new functions introduced with Groove's Fast Ring UWP version, such as "Your Groove" playlist generation. There's no news at this time whether the Xbox One edition of Groove will retain its music videos feature.
As Microsoft continues to converge their ecosystem under the Universal Windows Platform, unifying Groove development into a single app makes perfect sense to ensure the pace of updates remains balanced across all Windows 10 versions.
Additionally, Groove for Xbox One will be able to take advantage of the Anniversary Update's background music feature, which is slated to arrive on August 2nd along with updates to Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.
Following the Avatars app, the Movies & TV app recently received a UWP makeover on Xbox One, bringing parity between the console and other Windows 10 device versions. We know that the Xbox One will begin featuring third-party UWP apps in the near future, as VLC Player has recently teased.
If you'd like to learn more about how Groove works on UWP, check out our comprehensive guide below, or purchase a Groove Music Pass to get started right away. As a side note, if you purchase a month of Groove Music in the US, you'll get an additional three for free until August 17th.
What Windows 10 apps would you like to see running on Xbox One? Would you use Office Mobile on your console? Let us know in the comments.
