SYDNEY: Xbox One’s April software update will include several minor improvements to the party chat mechanics, game hub, and achievement system.
This week, Microsoft’s favourite mouthpiece, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, updated his blog with a detailed description of the patch’s perks. And even though none of the changes are critical, Xbox One owners will definitely appreciate the update.
Here are the details, according to Hryb:
Party chat improvements Party chat is being improved with troubleshooting guidance for Xbox One owners. The Party App will help you get your microphone enabled and show you when privacy settings or networking issues are blocking communication with particular party members.
Game hub links Members can more easily discover game hub content from activity feed items. You’ll see activity feed items when any of your friends follow a game, and you’ll also be able to get back to a game’s hub from activity feed posts related to the game including feed items about the game’s achievements, game clips and screenshots. Finally, we’ve added a link to game hubs from the game’s page in the achievements app.
Achievement notifications with this preview release, you’ll also see the achievement’s description in the notification so you know what you did to earn this achievement without having to open the achievements app. If you do choose to open up the notification to see the achievement details, we’ve also made some performance improvements to make loading the achievements app from a notification faster.
Microsoft has already delivered the update to its Preview Program members and, assuming everything works, the rest of fans will get their hands on it in April.
If you’re never heard of the Preview Program, don’t be alarmed. It’s not a collection of hyper-elite Microsoft fanboys (at least not entirely). It’s just a group of people who have agreed to test software updates before they’re sent to the general masses. Every month, program members download the update and futz around until all of the bugs have been squashed.
It’s beta testing without payment.
If you’re interested in becoming a member, Major Nelson frequently posts invites on his social media accounts. Here’s one from yesterday (just a warning, the codes have been claimed):
According to Major Nelson’s blog post, the preview members will get a “second wave” of “great features” at some point next week, but we don’t know how those will fit into Microsoft’s patching strategy. But given the unremarkable nature of April’s patch, there’s a chance that MS is working on something big.
Though, there are a hundred other possibilities, so you should probably just ignore my speculation.
