Microsoft is on fire lately… in a good way. With the October Xbox One update now pushed out to the masses, they have already announced a hefty batch of features and updates set to be released in November. Those lucky enough to take part in the Xbox One preview program can start testing them out starting today.
The update focuses on personalization, TV and SmartGlass features — meaning custom backgrounds and gamer profiles, TV trends and Twitter sharing, and Xbox Store improvements and more.
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Check out all the details below or at the Xbox Wire site.
We?re bringing you new and exciting ways to watch TV and interact with the Xbox Live gaming community in this month?s Xbox One system update preview. Today, we will begin rolling out a ton of new features to members of the Xbox One preview program. We?ve got the full breakdown of features listed for you right here.
Show Who You Are ? Some of the most requested features being released this month include the ability to customize your Xbox One background and showcase and share some of your favorite achievements and game clips.
- Custom Backgrounds ? The #1 fan-requested feature is making its initial debut for preview members. For the first time, each account on your Xbox One can have a customized background. You can choose a custom color or achievement art as your background on Xbox One, with more customization options coming down the road.
- Gamer Profile ? You can now share your location and bio as part of your profile. You can set these options on your Xbox One console and use Xbox One SmartGlass to browse to other people?s profiles and check out their showcase items. Additionally, you can now select a set of showcase items that are displayed when other gamers look at your profile on an Xbox One console. You can use Xbox One SmartGlass or Xbox One console to add or remove up to six game clips or achievements that will be displayed in a carousel format.
- Tweet about your Favorite Game Clips ? You can now share your favorite Xbox One game clips with your followers on Twitter. Use the Share button on any game clip you have created and select Twitter to compose the Tweet.
A New Way to Watch TV ? With new Live TV and Twitter integration, you can discover new shows to love and see what people are saying on Twitter about shows in real-time.
- Live TV Trending ? Starting today for preview members in the U.S., Canada and the UK, a new tab will be available in OneGuide that displays the top 20 most watched TV shows, with the list filtered down to the shows that are currently available to you based on your OneGuide settings. The Live TV Trending list is updated by the minute, so you can easily discover shows that are popular with other viewers. The Trending tab in OneGuide is updated to display Twitter – Live TV trending first and Xbox ? Live TV Trending second. You can tune to a specific show by pressing the A button.
- Twitter TV Trending ? New this month in preview, you can see what Live TV is trending based on shows with the most conversations taking place on Twitter. Twitter TV Trending will initially be available to preview members in the U.S.
- Xbox TV Trending ? The Trending tab in OneGuide is updated to display Twitter trending first and Xbox ? Live TV Trending second. Xbox ? Live TV Trending is based on the number of Xbox One owners currently watching that show in each country, pulled from anonymous data collected at a national level.
- Tweets in MiniGuide ? See the actual tweets for the Live TV shows in real time and quickly find the Twitter #hashtag to join the conversation.
- Recents and Favorites in MiniGuide ? MiniGuide has been updated to include your favorite TV channels in a combined Recents and Favorites area and MiniGuide can now be activated via voice by saying ?Xbox Select ? MiniGuide? while watching TV.
Store improvements and SmartGlass updates ? We are also excited to roll out these cool features:
- Store improvements ? The Store pages on Xbox One have been improved to enable you to more quickly browse and find content. The navigation buttons were moved to the far left so you can find them easier. You can also more quickly find game add-ons, perform store specific searches and recommendations are more prominently displayed. Finally, store categories have been standardized so you can easily see the top items in each query at a glance.
- Friends? Game Activity on SmartGlass ? You can now see a list of your friends that have played a given game within the Xbox One SmartGlass experience.
- Games with Gold & Deals with Gold on SmartGlass ? For gamers with an Xbox Live Gold subscription, you can browse ?Free Games with Gold? and discounted content with Gold and initiate download of the content to your Xbox One console from your mobile device.
- SmartGlass Store Improvements ? We added a new section for Apps to make it easier to find and download apps for your Xbox One, as well as adding a Coming Soon filter for Games and Add Ons to make it easier to see upcoming Xbox One releases sorted by anticipated release date.
Internet Explorer updates ? There are a few improvements Internet Explorer available this month:
- Snap IE ? From the Address Bar in Internet Explorer, you can now easily snap from a full screen experience and move Internet Explorer into snap mode.
- Featured sites ? Now, Internet Explorer will show a number when something is newly-added to featured sites. Newly-added sites will also display a badge until you launch them or seven days have passed since the site was added to the Featured list.
Updates to the Preview dashboard app ? We?re gamifying the Preview dashboard. Here are some new features we are adding:
- My Stats ? If you are in the Preview program, you will now earn points for providing feedback, including points for completing Quests, Surveys, Quick Poll questions, and rating the update. These will be shared in the Preview dashboard under My Stats. The more points you get, the more you level up, and the more rewards you?ll earn. Keep checking back for special bonus point opportunities.
- Leaderboard ? We?re also adding a leaderboard that shows how you stack up against your friends based on the points you have earned. If you don?t have friends in the Preview program, we?ll show how you stack up against others in the program. Keep checking back ? more things are coming to the My Stats page soon.
These new features and updates are rolling out to all Xbox One preview program members starting today and will launch for everyone in November.