New Xbox One Features Rolling Out to Insiders Ahead of the February Update

Simplified Home Update for All Insiders

With the 2002 update we are rolling out the new, streamlined Xbox One Home interface for all Xbox Insiders ahead of its full public release next month! Your feedback since beginning testing of these Home improvements has proven invaluable to building an experience that feels more responsive, keeps your favorite content front and center, and gets you into your gaming experiences faster than ever. With the new Home experience, we’ve removed the Twists from the top in favor of dedicated rows for Xbox Game Pass, Mixer, Xbox Community, and Microsoft Store with the added flexibility to add or remove rows for a customized experience.

My Games & Apps UI Update

With the 2002 update, we’re bringing you more ways to keep My Games & Apps organized! As we recently disclosed, you will now find content grouping for easier navigation and access to your games and apps, as well as labels for trials and demos, and a streamlined settings experience to simplify how you interact with your gaming collection. Keep your eye out for a full survey about these changes! In the meantime, we can’t wait to hear what you think.

Image Support in Conversations

With 2002, we’re enabling the ability for you to view images and animated GIFs in messaging conversations with your Xbox Live friends on console, with the ability to also view content in Message Requests based on your message safety settings. Now, images sent from the Xbox mobile app on iOS or Android or the new Xbox (Beta) App for Windows 10 PC will also display on your console, with the added ability to view the content in full-screen on Xbox One.

View and Install Individual Games Bundled Through Xbox Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass members: we’re giving you additional control over which content to install when downloading and playing Xbox Game Pass titles that are part of a larger bundle listing, such as Shenmue I & II. With this update, you will now see an “In this bundle” overview from the install dialog, as well as the option to select which individual title to download and launch.

Choose a Preferred Location for Notifications

You can now decide where you want notifications to appear on your screen by going to Settings -> Preferences -> Notifications and clicking on “Default notification position.” This will bring up a menu that lets you choose a preferred spot from one of six locations on your screen, letting you move them out of the way if they end up blocking something in games or apps. While your preferred location will become the new default, note that certain games may change this during gameplay for the best user experience.

Even More Mixer Viewing Improvements

Thanks to your feedback, we’ve made a number of changes to improve your Mixer viewing experience on Xbox One! Firstly, you now have the option to switch your chat mode to ‘classic chat,’ which displays chat messages in their own dedicated space beside the stream video. Secondly, you can now manually select the video resolution at which you want to watch content based on your preference. Lastly, you can now see more information about streamers you’re interested in, browse their VODs and Clips to watch, and host their channel on your own, making it easier to support your favorite streamers and keep up to date with all of their content.

More Storage Management Suggestions

With the existing Storage Management feature, when you run out of space your Xbox One makes space-freeing suggestions for you by organizing and displaying which games, apps, and other content is taking up the most room on your hard drive. In 2002, we are introducing a “Move” option for users with external storage attached to their console, giving you the choice to either move or remove items to free up the needed space as desired.

We’re always working to improve the Xbox experience, and a subset of users may also see additional experimental features that are not listed here.  These features are only enabled for a portion of the Xbox Insider audience to gauge interest and collect feedback. Your participation in the Xbox Insider Program helps us improve the work-in-progress content and features coming to Xbox One.

Thank you to all Xbox Insiders who are actively helping to shape the Xbox experience. These 2002 updates are possible due to the valuable feedback we receive as part of the program. If you’d like to help create the future of Xbox and get access to early features, download the Xbox Insider Hub on your Xbox One or Windows 10 PC today. You may also visit the Xbox Insider Blog for the latest release notes or join the Xbox Insiders subreddit to submit feedback and join the discussion. We host a weekly refreshed thread (Xbox Requests) for all gaming ideas and feature requests. Let us know what you would like to see!