14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft revealed some of the new features that are going to be made available for the Xbox One Preview and Xbox Beta.
Microsoft insists on saying that people want a more social experience for their Xbox One, and since they are saying it, then it must be true.
The recent changes brought to Xbox One have been made with this in mind, and the company is seeing the Xbox One more as a social machine than a gaming one. That’s probably the reason many of the new “features” are designed to make Xbox One more friendly for users who want a social experience.
The new features don’t seem to have much in common with gaming, although there are a few related to avatars and achievements. There are a lot more for interacting with friends or “Improvements to Trending,” which sounds a lot like something made by Facebook. Since not all users are alike, we can surmise that some people must really like this stuff, or it wouldn't be such a big deal for Microsoft.
New feature coming to Xbox One
“Rolling out to the Xbox One Preview audience starting today, and to Windows 10 PC & mobile Xbox Beta app members next week, are a host of updates. This month, we’re focused on continuing to improve social features to help you stay connected to the Xbox Live community across console and PC, while bringing these experiences closer together,” the announcement reveals.
Mike Ybarra, director of Program Management for Xbox, explains that the users of Xbox One Preview will be able to see who’s at a party before joining (one of the few interesting features), the Achievements section now shows comparison with your friends, the Pins on Home are now accessible and easier to arrange, the Activity Feed has been refined, and a few other smaller features have been added.
Also, a new “Avatar Store” has been added, Xbox News hub has been implemented, and the Xbox App (for messaging) is now a little bit more compact.
All of this is now in testing, but there is no information of when it might land for everyone.