Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S owners have a new Dashboard update on the way this week, adding several improvements.
“This month marked the start of the next generation of console gaming on Xbox with the release of Xbox Series X|S, and Team Xbox is excited to continue bringing new ways to make your experience on Xbox even better,” Microsoft’s Jonathan Hildebrandt writes. “Just like we’ve done on Xbox One, we will continue to periodically release software updates designed to improve your Xbox gaming experience based on your feedback, including both delivering you new features and fixing bugs.”
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
The November 2020 Xbox Console Update, as it’s called, adds the following new features. Some are only for Xbox Series X|S.
Dynamic background support. On Xbox Series X|S, you can now configure the background of the Dashboard to display dynamic backgrounds with motion and color.
Auto HDR badge. Xbox Series X|S supports a feature called Auto HDR that helps improve the visual quality of pre-HDR games. When this feature is enabled for a particular game, you’ll see a new Auto HDR badge when you open the Guide.
“Optimized for Xbox Series X|S” badge. A new “Optimized for Series X|S” badge will appear on game tiles in My Games and Apps so you know which games are optimized for the new consoles.
Game Activity tab. This new Guide tab will help keep you up-to-date on your achievements progress in the current game.
Xbox Game Pass improvements. Now, you can pre-install games that are coming soon to Xbox Game Pass. To do so, open the Xbox Game Pass app on the console or mobile look for a “Coming soon” section.
Add existing Xbox family members to a new console. If you’ve used the new Xbox Family Settings app on Android and iOS to create child accounts, you can now add family members to your console during setup.
Xbox Insider Program support. Now, the Xbox Series X|S consoles are compatible with the Xbox Insider Program, so you can participate in testing future updates.
Bug fixes and performance enhancements. As always, the new update brings some unspecified bug fixes and performance improvements.
The November Xbox Update is rolling out starting today.