If you were looking for a reason to get excited this Wednesday, Microsoft’s Xbox Team has you covered. Today the company revealed the Xbox One Creators Update, and many of the features available through the Xbox Insider Program, are rolling out to everyone.
The company confirmed the Xbox One Creators Update was rolling out this morning in a post on Xbox Wire, which is its official blog for console and Xbox-related news. Features inside the update arrived for testing back in January. It’s called the Xbox One Creators Update because it’s part of the Windows 10 Creators Update, generally.
So what’s tucked inside? The Xbox One Creators Update includes big-time enhancements to the Xbox Guide. That’s the panel that slides out from the left edge of your display when you price the Xbox logo on your controller twice. Now you need only press the button once to reveal the Xbox Guide. The Guide now has a new Home area that has Pins and other things that you used to have to go to the Home area on Xbox for. Besides opening a game or app, Microsoft seems to be making an honest effort to keep users from having to visit Home. This update removes the live view of your current app that the Home area used to have.
Game DVR, audio playback controls and a new Achievement Tracker are all included in the Xbox One Creators Update that’s going out today. So is access to Microsoft’s official video streaming app Beam. In fact, Beam is available on Windows 10 PCs with the Windows 10 Creators Update. Copilot, a feature that lets one user make use of two controllers is available with this update. Kids will be disappointed to learn that the Screen Time controls for parents are live too. Parents can now directly decide how much time their kids spend on Xbox One from the Microsoft Family website.
Changing how Home works is sure to get some people fired up. So is the loss of Xbox Snap, a feature that previously let you watch videos or browse the web while watching television or playing a game. Apps no longer snap to the right edge of your screen at all, marking another launch day feature that Microsoft has killed in its effort to improve the console’s performance.
I can’t lie, I’m a little bitter about losing Snap, but the improvements in multitasking and speed make up for it. Your console will automatically update if it’s connected to the internet already.
