Microsoft Previews Improvements Coming in the March 2015 Xbox One System Update
- Paul Thurrott
- Feb 19, 2015
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Beginning in March, Xbox One users will gain access to a major system update that adds screenshot-taking, suggested friends, and other new features. But if you’re on the Xbox One preview program, you can check out this update starting today.
Here’s what’s coming in the March 2015 System Update for Xbox One.
Take a screenshot. One of the most-requested new features, you will be able to take screenshots in games and elsewhere by double-tapping the Xbox button and then pressing Y on the wireless controller. If you have a Kinect, you can also say “Xbox, take a screenshot.”
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Manage your screenshots. Microsoft is also updating the Upload app so that you can manage your screenshots (in addition to game video clips). From this app, you can set a screenshot as your Dashboard background, and in the future you will be able to share screenshots to your activity feed, attach to messages, add screenshots to your showcase, and share to Twitter. As with game clips, your screenshots will be visible in your profile.
Suggested friends. As we saw previously in the Xbox app for Windows 10 Technical Preview 2 and the Xbox.com web site, Microsoft is adding the suggested friends feature to Xbox One. You will see suggested friends appear in the Friends area in Home.
Share your real name. With this update, there will be two new ways to share your real name: with all of your friends or with everyone in the Xbox Live community. So you can continue to share your real name with select friends, or with no one, your choice. You can configure this by navigating to Friends, My Profile, Name Sharing Settings.
Tile transparency customization. In a previous System Update, Microsoft added a transparency option for Dashboard tiles. But in the March update, you can customize the level of transparency, so you can see the background image. To configure this option, navigate to Settings, My Xbox, Tile Transparency.
TV in Australia. Xbox One fans in Australia are getting good news in this release: You can now use the Xbox One Digital TV Tuner in Australia and get free-to-air TV listings in OneGuide.
More. There are a few other updates in this release, including a new setting for sharing voice search data (which will help Microsoft make this feature work better) and the ability to notify Xbox when you receive spam through the messages interface.