In the words of Larry Hryb, better known for his gamertag as “Major Nelson” on his latest blog post;
“You have made Xbox what it is today and we couldn’t be more grateful for your support and valuable feedback. Our focus continues to be on you and what you want in the product.”
Doesn’t that statement just make you feel warm and gooey? It looks like Xbox are taking their Xbox feedback channel very seriously, offering a range of interesting new updates coming next month and beyond. These include easier ways to download games by mobile purchase, gamerscore leaderboard to compete with your friends, and interact with your friends through the activity feeds, as well as a way to turn those notifications off for those times when you just want to focus on the game!
This new update will be available to consoles which have their updates set to automatically receive new ones.
- Activity feed updates: They’re adding new ways for you to interact with friends in the activity feed. The interface will change to a single column scrolling list that is longer and includes more content. We’ll add the ability to post text to your feed, and to “like” and comment on feed items. You can share game clips and anything else in the feed with friends either publically (to your activity feed) or privately (as an attachment to a message). You’ll also be notified when anyone likes, comments on or shares your items. Each user will get a personal feed on their profile, so you can see what specific friends have been up to. And, with SmartGlass, you can see what your friends have shared to their activity feed and “like” specific posts (additional activity feed support coming in future SmartGlass updates).
- Expanded Friends area on Home: Right from Home, see what’s going on with your friends. Stay up-to-date with their current activity, the top trending games your friends are playing, and a leaderboard to see who has been working the hardest on their Gamerscore. They’re doing an extended preview on this, rolling it into the early access preview this month to a subset of our preview audience so we can refine it until it’s ready for the entire Xbox One market.
- Mobile purchase: One of the most requested features on Xbox Feedback. Using Xbox SmartGlass or on Xbox.com, you can remotely purchase games and Add-on content. No more waiting to begin downloading when you get home – if your console is set to automatically take updates, your console will begin downloading your purchase.
- Low battery notification: You asked for it, now a notification will pop up when your controller battery is getting low.
- Disable notifications during video: Adding the ability to turn off notifications based feedback we heard from you.
- Enabling 3D Blu-ray: An update to the Blu-ray player app will enable 3D Blu-ray functionality on Xbox One.
- OneGuide in Brazil, Mexico, Austria and Ireland: Live TV listings can be configured for four new countries as part of this month’s Preview program. And now there is an OneGuide Issue Reporter available under the TV & OneGuide settings, Troubleshooting section.
- Last seen time in Friends list: Direct from Xbox Feedback, the friends list will now show how long it’s been since a friend has been online. For example, “Last seen 20m ago: Forza Motorsport 5.”
With these updates the Xbox One will have a much nicer user experience; being able to get instant access to what your friends have been up to and what games are most popular between them as well as the all important, being able to shut it all off when you just want to use the gaming console for what it’s meant for; gaming.
