Microsoft Releases the Xbox Holiday Update

Microsoft Releases the Xbox Holiday Update

Microsoft announced today that it has delivered the so-called Xbox Holiday Update. But this isn’t an Xbox One system update. Instead, it’s an update that spans the entire Xbox ecosystem, including Xbox Live, the Xbox One console, and the Xbox app on Android, iOS, Windows 10, and Windows 10 Mobile.

“With this holiday update, Xbox Live becomes even more social as we unite gamers across devices, giving you access to more people to play with that share your interests and more choice in how you play,” Microsoft’s Scott Henson explains. “The update also builds upon our vision to foster a welcoming experience on Xbox Live where everyone is included, respected, and supported. The updates start to hit Xbox One consoles and the Xbox app starting today.”

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Is anyone else getting tired of these update names? No? OK, moving on.

As Microsoft notes, all of the features being delivered today have been in testing with the newly-rebranded Xbox Insider Program for the past few months. They include:

Clubs. This Xbox Live feature lets gamers create and manage “communities of gamers who love the same things you do.” Club members can set up parties, play games, share content, and communicate with voice or text across Xbox One and the cross-platform Xbox app. You can search for clubs, or create your own, in the Communities area of the Xbox One Dashboard, or in the Clubs view elsewhere.

lfg

Looking for Groups. This Xbox Live feature helps you quickly find other players that you will want to game with. As Microsoft notes, it’s sort of a gaming “want-ad” that goes out publicly to the Xbox community. And it can be used to help you complete daily quests or win Achievements that are easier (or only possible) with other people. Because this is a confusing feature, Microsoft has created a nice LFG tutorial video.

achieve

Rare achievements. Billed as a top fan request, Xbox now acknowledges rare achievements with a special special animated notification and a diamond icon.

group-msg

Group Messaging. This new Xbox Live feature lets send a single group message to everyone in a single conversation. You can later add people to the group and change the conversation topic. Group messaging works on Xbox One and the cross-platform Xbox app, and it features a new predictive dictionary that is accessible viat the controller’s right thumb stick on Xbox One and Windows 10 for PCs.

leaderboard

Gamerscore leaderboard improvements. The Gamerscore leaderboard on Xbox One and the cross-platform Xbox app now resets at the beginning of each month instead of on a 30-day rolling period. It’s available via the Achievements tab in your profile.

emoji

Emoji support. Xbox One users can now access emojis via the virtual keyboard. You access these emojis by pressing the left trigger until they show up, Microsoft says. I hope never to see this feature.

 

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Conversation 6 comments

  • 5485

    10 November, 2016 - 9:04 am

    <p>I would really would like go be able to do more stuff with Xbox One. This update for my usage totally misses the point. I never had difficulty in finding people to play with in the platform. Never.</p>

    • 2354

      10 November, 2016 - 1:38 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#25372">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/nbplopes">nbplopes</a><a href="#25372">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Guess you never played the original Titanfall lol</p>

      • 5485

        12 November, 2016 - 9:56 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#25409">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/zybch">zybch</a><a href="#25409">:</a></em></blockquote>
        <p>Yes I have that game.</p>

  • 7336

    10 November, 2016 - 2:27 pm

    <p>How exciting, yet most people I know that have the Xbox One, use it almost entirely for&nbsp;Netflix or playing music, or Skype and TV,&nbsp;all three of these scenarios have major bugs, missing features&nbsp;and get no love in general.&nbsp;Voice control does not work in many places&nbsp;(broken in latest Groove app update, i.e. ‘xbox goto Groove music’, ‘xbox play music’ don’t work, it registers the command but does nothing). Netflix is buggy and needs a restart once in a while and of course voice here is limited to ‘stop/pause/fast forward/rewind’, also what happened to the from&nbsp;the home screen Netflix voice control,&nbsp;’xbox play blah on netflix’? Answering/making Skype calls with voice is also much worse than it use to be thanks to recent OS updates, and still no updated Skype app on Xbox. I suppose since I’m not a gamer&nbsp;Microsoft wants me to return it.</p>

  • 8179

    13 November, 2016 - 8:42 pm

    <p>If this isn’t a system update – can we just skip this…. Forever?</p>
    <p>I hope so… I’ve never bought Xbox Live – and never will – so all this multiplayer and social stuff – we should have the ability to remove it all from the system…. You know – then maybe the core OS wouldn’t take up 150gb of HDD space….</p>

  • 9277

    15 December, 2016 - 7:27 am

    <p>I faced the same issues with Netflix as mms_ mentioned. I have been using Netflix with my <a href="http://netflixaccountsinfo.com&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">free Netflix account usernames</a> but never faced such problems. But, I have faced the first issue yesterday. I had to restart it to fix the issue.</p>

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