After teasing it last week this morning on Xbox News' Mike Ybarra has announced all that Xbox One users can look forward to in the upcoming months. These changes will begin rolling out as early as today for Xbox One Preview members and updates to the Windows 10 PC and mobile Xbox app will be coming next week. Ybarra highlights that these updates have been put together to "improve social features to help you stay connected to the Xbox Live community."
Starting off with the Xbox One there are plenty of changes being made that the community has been asking for. Some of the new changes to the UI include bringing the gamerscore leaderboard back, this will mean you'll be able to see how well you rank in gamerscore gain against your friends over the past 30 days. Getting to rearrange pins and being able to see your pins offline is also being added. You will also be able to hide your games from the 'ready to install' list so you can finally get rid of all those demos and beta's.
It's not just the UI that is getting some improvements but also the ability to connect with your friends easier than before. One change that people have been asking for is the new ability to see who is in a party with your friend before you join them. To do this you just need to select the 'chat' button under their name. Your activity feed on your Xbox One will also let you know when there are new items. Clicking on the notification will take you to your activity feed so that you can run through all the news. When your friends are streaming on Twitch now instead of having to work your way to your friends channel through the Twitch app you will be able to select the notification in the game hub and be taken directly there.
For the Xbox Beta app on Windows 10 and mobile devices the Avatar Store will be appearing allowing you to alter your avatar on the fly as well as purchase new outfits and props for them. Xbox News posts will be viewable on both the console and mobile with information on hardware, updates, game releases and more. Additional functionality is also being added to the mobile device in compact mode. This mode allows you to quickly switch between friends, party, messages, and activity alerts. This will mean you can take note of everything in your Xbox world even faster than before.
Quick Take
It's fantastic to see so many great changes coming to the Xbox One. It's even better to see that a lot of these are things that people have been genuinely asking for in places like r/XboxOne and on the Xbox Feedback website. Features like the return of the leaderboard and the ability to see who is in your party are two of the top hot ideas on uservoice. This shows to me that Microsoft and the Xbox Team is really paying attention to what the people want which makes me look forward to what will be coming for the future of Xbox One.
Are you looking forward to the new additions coming to the Preview Program? What is the next thing that you want to see on Xbox One?
