We’ve got some exciting news from the Xbox universe that’s sure to make your gaming experience even better. Xbox has just rolled out a brand-new Home experience for all Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles. This update, crafted based on player feedback, is designed to make it easier for you to discover new games, reconnect with your old favourites, engage with communities, and enjoy a more personalized experience.
What’s New in the Xbox Home Experience?
- Quick Access Menu: Xbox has introduced a quick access menu at the top of your Home. This feature makes it a breeze to navigate to your Library, the Microsoft Store, Xbox Game Pass, Search, and Settings. It’s like having a personal gaming assistant!
- Simplified Layout: Xbox has decluttered the layout and moved the games you recently played, along with other content and apps, towards the bottom of the screen. This creates more space for your personalized background. It’s all about putting your favorite games front and center!
- Dynamic Backgrounds: Xbox now offers an option to change your background to match the game you’re highlighting in the recently played list. Your Xbox Home can now reflect your current gaming mood!
- Improved Game Discovery: Xbox has introduced curated and personalized lists of games to enhance game discovery. It’s like having a personal game recommender!
- Customizable Experience: You can now pin your favorite games, curated groups, and system groups like Quick Resume to Home, tailoring your experience to your preferences.
- Updated Friends & Community Updates Row: Stay in the loop with what’s happening in your community through the updated Friends & Community Updates row.
- Watch & Listen Spotlight: Discover what media apps and content are available to you via a Watch & Listen spotlight and list of entertainment apps.
The Journey to the New Xbox Home
The enhancement of the Home Experience has been a collective effort by Team Xbox, involving engineers, designers, researchers, and many more. They started by investing in infrastructure that would enable them to experiment with different page layouts, content, and customer situations. They evaluated various design elements, including user interaction, ease of action completion, and overall satisfaction. Once they had a version ready to share, they started rolling it out to Xbox Insiders.
When Xbox first shared their work with Xbox Insiders, the feedback was clear – gamers wanted more space to display custom backgrounds or game art, quicker navigation options, and more personalization. Over the past 8 months since the initial release, Xbox has made changes to meet those requests and have a new Home that feels fresh, puts the focus on your games and apps, and creates space for beautiful backgrounds.
How to Try the New Home UI on Your Xbox
Xbox is currently rolling out the new Home experience to a subset of all Xbox consoles. This means that some customers will need to wait a few weeks to get their hands on it. But don’t worry, over the next few weeks, it’s coming to a console near you! If you’re seeing the new Home on your console and you want to customize it to your liking, Xbox has a guide to help you out.
Thank you for all your feedback, and your patience as Xbox built your new Home. They look forward to hearing what you think! And don’t forget to follow Braintree Gaming on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stay up to date with all the latest gaming news. Game on!