If you’re an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, you already have access to Xbox Cloud Gaming at not extra charge. The service lets you stream well over 100 games across your mobile devices, consoles, and PCs with no downloads, giving you more time to play and less time to wait. The service has been improving over time and its latest new feature, Clarity Boost, is opt-in for players. If you want to get the most out of your cloud streaming experience, here’s how to use Clarity Boost for Xbox Cloud Gaming when playing on a browser.
The steps are brief but specific, so without following Microsoft’s directions, you won’t get to experience the improvements of Clarity Boost. The feature comes in partnership with Microsoft Edge, which makes Clarity Boost a real team effort within the offices of Redmond, Washington–or more likely, the home offices of those employees, given the world events of the last two years. If you can access the Microsoft Edge browser, you can play Xbox Game Pass games via the cloud with Clarity Boost by following these instructions:
- Download Microsoft Edge Canary
- To confirm you are in Microsoft Edge Canary, navigate to edge://settings/help to make sure you are on version 96.0.1033.0 or later
- To enable Clarity Boost, go to www.xbox.com/play, login and start a game, such as Sea of Thieves or Forza Horizon 5
- Open the more actions menu, shown as “(…)” on screen
- Select Enable Clarity Boost option
As you can see, Clarity Boost is meant to enhance the image of a streamed game, which tends to lose a bit of luster as compared to games installed natively on a console or PC. Note that Microsoft Edge Canary is the version of the browser that gets early and experimental features, but may sometimes be buggy as a result. The name implies users on this platform are the proverbial canary in the coal mine, who may wind up seeing bugs that the team intends on fixing before updates are brought to the general public.
This means playing with Clarity Boost, for now anyway, might mean accepting some jank in your browsing experience, but in time this step won’t be necessary, so it’s only something early adopters need to worry about. If you’re already an Xbox Insider, you’re probably comfortable with a somewhat buggier build if it means early access to exciting new features.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is available as a complimentary perk for all Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, alongside other perks such as access to both the Game Pass for console and Game Pass for PC somewhat different libraries, as well as full EA Play access.
