A massively improved social experience and enhanced media access lead the new features coming to Xbox One later this month.
One of the greatest assets that had evolved over the course of the Xbox 360 was the “Xbox Guide,” but microsoft had elected to forgo the guide in turn for the multifunctionality of the Xbox One interface. Many Xbox gamers have expressed their dismay with the lack of an “Xbox Guide” for the Xbox One.
That will all change now as Microsoft has unveiled the “Snap Center” — a single snappable hub that will incorporate players’ friends list, messages, parties, and achievements.
The console is also expanding the media access players have. USB support will also be added with the updated, and users will be able to watch and listen to their own personal music and video collection.
The Xbox One’s greatest quality may be just how quickly improvement and changes are being made to the console, and the dedication Microsoft has shown to their fanbase with “Xbox Feedback.”
Many of the features now coming were directly requested by fans, and with updates coming each month to fine-tune and enhance the interface the Xbox One is consantly evolving for the better.
Here’s the full list of improvements and changes coming later this month:
- New “Friends” tab – The Xbox One home screen will feature an additional tab that will display your friends, their activities, and game leaderboards.
- The Snap Center – All the functionality of the Xbox 360’s Guide is coming to the One. Friends, parties, messages, and achievements all in one easily accessible location.
- Threaded Messages – This is a feature that took a surprisingly long time to develop for the Xbox platform, but you’ll now be able to see your history of dialogue between yourself and other gamers.
- USB/DLNA Media Player – All of your personal music/video content will be available to you through external USB hard drives. Also support DLNA playback.
Supported file types: (3gp audio, 3gp video, 3gp2, aac, adts, animated gif, asf, avi divx, avi, dv avi, uncompressed avi, xvid, bmp, jpg, gif, h264, avchd, mjpeg, mkv, mov, mp3, mpeg 1 ps, mpeg 2, mpeg 2 hd, mpeg 2 ts, mpeg 4 h264 aac, mpeg 4 sp, png, tiff, wav, wma, wma lossless, wma pro, wma voice, wmv, wmv hd)
- Stream TV straight to smartglass devices
- Boot to TV – Consoles will be given the option to display TV right as the consoles is turned on from standby mode.
- Mini guide – Currently the One Guide takes up nearly the entire screen, but the new mini guide will display show information and give users the ability to change channels without interrupting what is currently playing.