The new Microsoft Xbox One software update will bring in a host of changes that will overhaul the Xbox Home dashboard. The Xbox Home facelift will make it look more like Facebook, for better or for worse.
Microsoft’s motivations for the update is to bring speed and intelligence to the Xbox One. The intelligence part is covered by the introduction of Cortana, Microsoft’s version of Apple’s Siri. The traditional tiled layout is on the out and vertical columns that you can slide across horizontally is in (ahem… just like in PlayStation home).
The Friends section has been expanded into a full blown community section and here’s where things begin to drift in to the realm of Facebook. Microsoft has added an Activity Feed so players can see the latest updates from their friends as well as news from game developers regarding updates and so on.
Sounds familiar?
Alongside the Activity Feed is a What’s Trending on Xbox Live section which brings up the most popular games and content on Xbox Live at the moment. Again, Facebook also has a trending sidebar next to its News Feed.
The Trending feed will also promote gamers on the Xbox Live network that are incredibly active in gameplay or just diligent in using Xbox One’s features. For example, if you take a ridiculous amount of screenshots in game, your gamer profile may pop up in the Trending feed. Consider it an Achievement Unlocked.
Microsoft has confirmed that you can opt out of appearing in the Trending feed and a company representative quickly highlighted the fact that the new update will have robust privacy settings for users.
For those that shun the whole social media experience, the new Xbox One user interface may not be their cup of tea but the addition of a quick access pane, which can be activated in-game to connect with friends, is a nice new element to the design.
The new update for the Xbox One will be coming soon and will also include other features such as the long-awaited backwards compatibility for selected Xbox 360 titles.
Comments
13 responses to “Microsoft Wants To Turn Xbox Home Into Facebook”
Just give me the ability to better listen to custom music while playing sports games, without needing to have something “Snapped”… and where I can easily change the game and external music music volume easily without needing to go into the xbox settings panels… And i’ll be happy.
Apparently Phil Spencer said that’s coming after the dashboard (Win10) update. They allegedly ‘need’ Win10 to do it. Reminds me of Windows Phone a lot though, neglect the current OS apps to focus on the future OS. Harms current consumers and uptake in the interim.
None of this is really new. From day one the console has treated every account enabled aspect as a feed designed to interact with followers and attempt to predict your actions in the form of suggestions rather than take commands. This isn’t a call for alarm as much as a reminder that Microsoft still pay too much attention to being a social media platform over a communication/match-making tool. If you load up an XBOX One right now and go to Friends you’ll see a very similar page with a different layout. The update really just moves all that into a tab rather than it’s current App.
On the plus side there are some new features that some people will enjoy and since launch they have managed to bring the consoles fundamental player-to-player interaction up to scratch.
Friends? I don’t have friends on Xbox One, just 360. Xbox One has followers, and people I’m following, which is rubbish.
When I used to play my 360 I’d be like ‘oh, this is great, but I really wish they’d get all this communication and match-making stuff out the way so I can focus on broadcasting to everyone I’ve ever met’.
I joke about how dumb it is but I’m fine with social media. It’s just on the XBOX One it really seems cult leadery. It’s like they actually did forget that XBOX Live is more than just a platform for fame hungry gamers looking to build social media empires.
Yeah I don’t really get the sentence “Microsoft has added an Activity Feed so players can see the latest updates from their friends”
This is already in the dash, it’s already a thing and has been for a while. It’s in the xbox app as well. Why is this being described as though it is new?
At this point I don’t really care what they do as long as they make it all faster.
There are only 2 features I want (apart for bc) and they are:
1. Make a music app available in the background
2. Enable chat to come through your speakers/headset/both, just like the 360.
If I were greedy, I’d ask for a faster way to mute griefers/trolls/children in chat, but its already pretty easy… just slow.
I think I prefer the look of the current one, but whatevs. I don’t spend a lot of time on the dashboard.
It looks alright so far, but:
1. For the love of God, let us listen to music in the background!
2. What happened to avatars? I miss my avatar being thrown about the screen like it was on 360.
From what I heard, avatars are making a come back, and looking at the image in the story it appears they may be using them here too. Am keen to see how they do it, as I don’t want them to become obsolete. Bring back the avatar awards too!
Yeah, i kind of like the idea, might get me interacting with my friends list a bit more. Seems to be the much same as Smart Glass
God I hate this so damned much. I got a 360 because Sony were god awful at friends and party management on the PS3 and I got tired of it. I then upgraded to a One, which a clusterfk of some gaming twitter hybrid. I don’t care about this feed, I don’t want it front and centre, and I want notifications when my FRIENDS request my FRIENDSHIP, maybe with something like a message like we used to be able to! Instead of constantly goddamn monitoring who my new followers are and wondering if I should be following them back or not because I don’t know who xxxsniper69 is.
Activity Feed, horizontal scrolling, sounds like a PS4 with Cortana to me
Yeah it does genius, the Xbox One OS does it right now. Do you even use the Xbox One?