This summer, Microsoft’s Xbox Team plans to deliver a number of different features to the Xbox One. Some are the requests of gamers fed up with having to snap the Groove Music app to their display. Others, make the Xbox One a better citizen in the overall Windows ecosystem.
Microsoft confirmed background music is coming to Xbox One sometime this summer earlier this morning during its keynote at BUILD 2016. BUILD is a yearly trade show where Microsoft reveals new software features coming to its ecosystems. Windows 10, the operating system the Xbox One runs, is among the platforms detailed at each year’s show.
Confirmed for this summer’s release of the software upgrade is the ability to play music while not having Groove Music open. That’s a feature that the Xbox 360 offered but the Xbox One doesn’t today. Also confirmed for the upgrade is the Cortana personal assistant that Microsoft promised for last year’s New Xbox One Experience upgrade. Also confirmed is access to the Windows Store.
Beginning this summer, Microsoft plans to let developers submit their apps to the Windows Store. There, users will be able to download those apps. In preparation, the company has revealed Xbox Dev Mode. After a reboot, app and game creators can test their wares on their console. No development kit is unnecessary. Microsoft has teased Dev Mode since it revealed the ID@Xbox Program in 2013.
All we know for now is that these features are a part of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update coming this summer. The company has more details about the software upgrade on the Windows Insider Blog.
