Xbox Insiders on PC Get Exciting New Postgame Recaps Feature in the Xbox App

Microsoft has quietly rolled out a useful quality‑of‑life upgrade for PC gamers, announcing a new “Postgame Recaps” feature for Xbox Insiders in the PC Gaming Preview in a fresh Xbox Wire blog post published on February 18, 2026. The feature lives inside the Xbox app on Windows and is designed to give players a tailored summary of their latest play session without getting in the way of actually playing games.

What Are Postgame Recaps in the Xbox PC App?

Postgame recaps are short summaries that appear in the Xbox app after you finish a gaming session on your Windows PC. Instead of forcing you to dig through menus or separate apps, the recap pulls together session‑specific highlights in one place.

These recaps can include:

• Captures you took using Game Bar

• Achievements you unlocked during that session

• Relevant in‑game events or milestones

• Occasional check‑ins and recommendations for other games you might like

The idea is to take the kind of information you’d usually only see in scattered notifications or achievement pop‑ups and turn it into a focused, end‑of‑session snapshot. For players who like to track their progress, share clips, or discover what to play next, this turns the moment you close a game into something more informative and actionable.

Designed to Show Up Only When It’s Useful

One of the more thoughtful parts of this feature is that Microsoft is explicitly trying to avoid notification fatigue. Postgame recaps are not meant to appear after every single game or every quick launch. Instead, they are more likely to show up when something meaningful actually happened in your session.

According to Microsoft, you’re most likely to see a recap when:

• You take a capture via the Xbox Game Bar

• You unlock an achievement

• You’re playing a game for the first time

• The app wants to surface a short check‑in or game recommendation

That last one is interesting because it hints at discovery being built directly into the recap. On your first time playing a game— and occasionally after that — you might see a small questionnaire‑style check‑in plus suggestions for other titles you might enjoy based on what you just played. For Game Pass players in particular, that could become a subtle but powerful discovery surface right at the end of a session.

You Stay in Control of What You See

Microsoft is also giving players granular control over how much of this they want. If you don’t want recaps for certain types of content, or you’d rather not see them at all, you can tune the feature in settings.

In the Xbox app on PC, you can go to:
Settings > App > Postgame recaps

From there, you can:

• Turn individual recap types on or off

• Tailor which kinds of recaps you care about (for example, achievements vs. captures)

• Fully opt out of all postgame recap types if you don’t want the feature at all

If you disable every recap type, the Xbox PC app will stop starting in the system tray when you launch a game, so you’re not running the app in the background unnecessarily. That’s a nice touch for players who are sensitive to background processes or just want a more minimal setup.

How It Works Under the Hood: System Tray and Performance

To make sure the recap appears right after you exit your game, the Xbox app can run in the system tray while you play. This allows it to monitor your session for the key triggers (captures, achievements, events) and then surface the recap as soon as you’re done.

Microsoft says it has optimized this behavior to minimize memory and performance impact. The goal is to keep the app lightweight in the background so it doesn’t interfere with frame rates or overall system responsiveness while you’re playing. And again, if you opt out of the feature entirely, the app will no longer auto‑start in the system tray when you launch a game, which gives power users a clear escape hatch.

Why This Matters for Xbox Insiders and PC Gaming

Postgame recaps fit into a broader push from Microsoft to make the Xbox app on Windows feel more like a central hub for your PC gaming life. Recent improvements around game hubs, cross‑store libraries, and play history all point in the same direction: giving players a single place to review what they play, how they play, and what they might want to try next.

For Xbox Insiders, this feature is also another example of Microsoft using the PC Gaming Preview ring to validate new ideas before pushing them wider. Postgame recaps could evolve into a more data‑rich experience over time — potentially tying into detailed stats, session summaries, or more advanced recommendations — but right now it’s a focused, lightweight layer on top of the existing Xbox app features.

If you’re someone who:

• Regularly captures clips and screenshots

• Cares about achievements and Gamerscore

• Likes curated recommendations instead of endlessly browsing libraries

…this kind of “session‑end” view could become something you rely on after each play.

How to Join the PC Gaming Preview and Try It

Because this is an Xbox Insider‑only feature for now, you’ll need to be enrolled in the PC Gaming Preview to see postgame recaps. If you’re not already in, the typical path looks like this:

1. Install and launch the Xbox Insider Hub app on your Windows PC.

2. In the Insider Hub, go to the Previews section.

3. Select PC Gaming Preview and choose Join.

4. Make sure your Xbox app on PC is updated to the latest Insider build.

Once you’re in the PC Gaming Preview and updated, you should start seeing postgame recaps in the Xbox app after eligible sessions, especially when you grab captures or unlock achievements.

How Microsoft Wants Feedback on Postgame Recaps

As with most Insider‑only features, Microsoft is explicitly asking players to weigh in on how useful postgame recaps really are. The team wants to know what you found helpful, what felt unnecessary, and what you’d like the recap to show after future gaming sessions.

If you’re an Xbox Insider and you hit issues or have ideas, Microsoft recommends:

• Posting or commenting in the r/XboxInsiders subreddit, ideally adding to an existing thread before making a new one

• Using the built‑in feedback tools from the Xbox app / Insider Hub to report bugs or behavior

• Following @XboxInsider on X/Twitter to stay on top of new features and release notes

The Insider community has been a key channel shaping improvements to the Xbox app and PC gaming experience over the last few years, and postgame recaps are the kind of feature that will likely change based heavily on that early feedback.

For now, if you’re enrolled in the PC Gaming Preview on Windows, it’s worth playing a few sessions, grabbing some captures, unlocking a couple of achievements, and seeing what your first postgame recap looks like — then telling Microsoft what you want it to show you next time.

Recent Posts You Might Like

• EA Sports College Football 26 Joins EA Play and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate With Big Supercharge Rewards
• Avowed Anniversary Update Adds New Races, New Game Plus, and PS5 Launch On Top of Today’s Game Pass Drop
• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Avowed Bring An Incredible Lineup on Xbox Game Pass Today February 17th