Microsoft Details New Features Coming to Xbox in February

Xbox Insiders are now testing several new features that Microsoft will bring to all Xbox One owners starting in February with what it’s calling the “2002 update” (as in February 2020).

“As we enter a new year, the Xbox team has been hard at work conceptualizing and testing new features based on your valuable feedback,” Microsoft’s Bradley Rossetti writes. “Starting last week, Xbox Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha rings began to see a few new features we’ve been working on light up across their Xbox One consoles, with additional experiences set to roll out over this week to all our Insiders.”

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Here’s what you can expect.

Simplified Home. Microsoft is rolling out yet another “new, streamlined Xbox One Home interface” that it says will “feel more responsive, keep your favorite content front and center, and get you into your gaming experiences faster than ever.” Sound familiar? It should: This is at least the 10th time they’ve done something like this. This time around, they’ve removed the Twists from the top of the display and have added dedicated rows for Xbox Game Pass, Mixer, Xbox Community, and the Microsoft Store, and you can add and remove rows to customize the experience.

Updated My Games & Apps. The 2002 update will provide more ways to keep the My Games & Apps screen organized. This includes content grouping for easier navigation, labels for trials and demos, and a streamlined settings experience.

Images come to Conversations. Microsoft will allow users to view images and animated GIFs in messaging conversations with their Xbox Live friends. Images sent from the Xbox mobile app on Android, iOS, or Windows 10 will also display on the console, which will also provide a full-screen display of images too.

View and install individual games in Xbox Game Pass game bundles. Those with Xbox Game Pass will be able to control which games to install that come in game bundles made available through the subscription.

Notification improvements. You will be able to configure where notifications appear on-screen in Settings > Preferences > Notifications > Default notification position. You can choose between six different locations.

Mixer viewing improvements. You will have the option to switch your chat mode to “classic chat,” which displays chat messages in their own dedicated space beside the stream video, and will be able to manually select the video resolution at which you want to watch content.

Storage management improvements. A new “Move” option for users with external storage will let you move or remove items to free up the needed space as desired.

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Conversation 4 comments

  • Thretosix

    30 January, 2020 - 4:26 pm

    <p>Why does it seem every time they try to improve things they just get worse? I sure hope the new Home is better than the last mess. Perhaps it's the fact I get used to where things are then they move them around again. I'm at the point where now it's next to impossible to manage the device without looking things up online first. Very counter intuitive.</p>

  • IanYates82

    Premium Member
    30 January, 2020 - 8:19 pm

    <p>I hope they fix the issue where the console streaming is useless for me due to my console, physically in Brisbane Australia, using the ping time to some US server to judge whether or not I have a good enough connection to stream. </p><p>Super frustrating </p>

  • benstat

    31 January, 2020 - 4:24 am

    <p>Typo: "The 2002 update will…".</p>

  • Omen_20

    03 February, 2020 - 1:25 am

    <p>I'm looking forward to this vertical XMB interface. It should be the best one they've tried.</p><p><br></p><p>Wait, did Xbox not have the ability to manually move games to an external drive? I only have one plugged into the PS4, but I figure the Xbox may need one eventually with Game Pass. I can't believe the console with the real OS, was missing such a basic feature.</p>

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