Microsoft has launched its fall update for the Xbox One’s user interface, offering more personalization for gamers and what they see when they log into the game console.
Mike Ybarra, corporate vice president of Xbox platform engineering, said in a blog post that the team worked hard to deliver the update. Microsoft teased the fall update back in August, showing off the new Home, Guide, and Community tabs. The company absorbed the feedback and it is delivering more personalization options for players.
You can now make the Home screen uniquely yours, adding your favorite games, friends, Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass, and more. The screen introduces “blocks,” which you can use to add or remove or change the order of it. You can now pin up to 40 objects onto your home screen.
Above: Xbox Mixer is easier to use.
It’s easier for players to discover new things, such as friend activities, leaderboards, tips, and quick links to Game Hubs, across both the console and Xbox Live at the top of Home. You can choose a dark, light, or high-contrast theme in the settings.
The Guide has also changed. It’s now faster, so you can move left and right through horizontal tabs. You can do that either with the left thumb stick on the bumpers.
“When you bring up Guide while in an active party or broadcast, Guide will automatically open the party or broadcast section by default for faster access to controls,” Ybarra said.
A new “Friends in games flyout” informs you of friends playing the same game. Your game invitations will show up in the multiplayer tab of the guide. The new tournaments section in the multiplayer tab of the Guide provides a quick portal into the official and community tournaments you’ve joined.
Above: Transferring games to the Xbox One X will be easy.
The console has a new notification system too. When your Xbox One is idle, time-sensitive activities and status are visible from far away. You can see a bunch of content related to a game on the Game Hub Welcome tab.
Your profiles allow faster access to recent activity. You can now easily manage who sees your activity feed content through the “Others can see your activity feed” privacy setting.
Microsoft is also preparing players to move over to Xbox One X, the new console which launches on November 7. New options will help save time when moving from one Xbox One to another (including Xbox One X), so you can get back to playing faster.
You can transfer your games to an external drive so you can connect it to your new console and play immediately. To do this, you simply unplug the drive from your current console, and plug it into the new one.
Above: If you need help, go to Xbox Assist.
Existing Xbox One owners can back up their games and console settings to an external drive so that they’re ready to be applied to the new console during setup.
You can also copy your games and apps over your home network from one console to another via network transfer. You can do a bulk transfer, and you can also download new 4K content for some games ahead of time so that the Xbox One X can play the enhanced versions of those games on the first day.
As for Mixer, the livestreaming platform, you can find it on a tab on the dashboard. It will now display broadcast previews so you can see what’s going on in popular streams before you join them.
If your bandwidth supports a 1080p broadcast, Microsoft will upgrade it automatically for your Xbox One family of devices. The broadcast and capture tab in the Guide is also more deeply integrated with the Mixer. Once you start a broadcast, you’ll be able to see your profile stats more easily.
You can also use a USB webcam to broadcast yourself alongside your gameplay on Mixer or have a one-on-one or group video chat with friends on Skype. GameDVR will now capture up to 4K screenshots and game clips on Xbox One X. And you can capture content directly to an external hard drive.
The Xbox Assist App can offer you personalized tips and notifications as well as troubleshooting.
