Microsoft Xbox One Update Brings New Customizable Home Screen, Now Available For Insiders

Xbox Insiders can zip over to the Alpha Ring right now and get a look at an update that will land for all Xbox One owners later this year. The new update brings some big changes to the Home screen, and is the direct result of feedback Microsoft says it received from gamers .

The Home screen changes are all about personalization according to Microsoft, and it brings the new Microsoft Fluent Design aesthetic to the Xbox One console. Players will be able to do things like adding a favorite game or friend to the Home screen by selecting the content or friend you like, pressing the menu button on the controller, and then selecting "add to Home."

That action creates a block of content that can be moved up or down and removed as your tastes change. If you add a game to your Home screen, you will also get content like Activity Feed posts and you can see when friends are playing that game. Microsoft writes, "We’ll be adding additional types of content blocks in the coming months, so stay tuned for more. The team is always pushing to make the Xbox experience faster and faster. In this release, we’ve eliminated the wait between Home, Social, and My Games and Apps by consolidating them into one dashboard experience. No more splash screens means you get to fun even faster."

Gamers will also find it faster to switch between tabs in the Guide to join you friends faster in games, quicker access to broadcasts, and faster changing between apps. The Guide also makes it faster to get back to Home screen if you want. The Community section has a new Activity Feed layout that shows more content at a glance. If you choose a feed item to look at in detail, you get a full screen view. Club discovery is also improved to make it easier to find Clubs to join.

An update for Windows 10 Game Bar is also coming making it easier to enable and disable Game Mode on a per game basis with a switch directly in the Game bar. Tweaks to Mixer broadcasting also gives players more choices on the audio shared. Microsoft wrote, "We’ll be sharing more when the update releases to more fans later this year. The team has worked hard, and we hope you enjoy these latest updates to your Xbox One experience! And of course, don’t forget to tell us what you think."