Not to be outdone by Sony's new PS4 firmware beta test, Microsoft's first major Xbox One software update of 2016 is rolling out to players today.
The system update introduces several big changes for the console. The Xbox One dashboard will now be more customisable, and reintroduce several popular features that were dropped when Microsoft launched the New Xbox Experience.
There's a renewed focus on community and social management, with the return of the ability to see who's in a multiplayer party before joining. When you view a friend's profile, you'll be able to see who else they're playing with by clicking "Chat". Friend suggestions are improved, now including gamertag, real name (if shared), gamerpic and avatar image, and the reason they're being suggested to you. A Gamerscore leaderboard also returns, which will be nestled under the "Achievements" section, letting you see how much better (or worse) you're doing than your friends.
Perhaps most importantly, you'll be able to modify pins on the home screen, rearranging them and making some content accessible offline. As it stands, the dashboard can get easily cluttered, so being able to keep the sections you most commonly access in place should help. In the interests of tidying up, unwanted games (think expired betas or demos) can be hidden from the "Ready to Install" page.
The update also brings an integrated avatar store, with free and paid-for items available for your Xbox Live replica, and makes it easier to join Twitch broadcasts directly from a game's hub page.
Several of these improvements and updates will be mirrored in the Windows 10 Xbox One app for PC. The desktop version also sees a new "Compact" mode introduced. This lets users "quickly switch between your friends view, your party, messages and activity alerts," without sacrificing the multi-tasking people typically get up to on their computers.
Expect smaller tweaks too -- improvements to how trending titles or events are displayed, clearer Xbox News updates through the console, and an updated activiy feed with notifications in a descending "most recent" view.
Microsoft tends to do small Xbox One system updates on a near-monthly basis, but this is the most significant since November. You'll be able to test see how it stacks up against the current interface for yourself as it becomes available to players over the course of today.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
