Xbox One Getting User Interface and Feature Update

Microsoft has an update coming for the Xbox One that'll make several changes to different parts of the console's user interface.

The news of the Xbox One's upcoming update came from a live airing of the Major Nelson Radio podcast where plenty of Xbox news is discussed. This special edition of the podcast was held in Seattle during PAX West where Mike Ybarra, the Windows platform head, showed of the new Xbox One UI update to those in the audience.

When the update is rolled out to Xbox One owners, the notifications that players receive will be one of the first areas that they'll notice has changed. While players are idle, notifications will pop up to the side of their screen, and depending on what the notification is for, players can take action by viewing the details of the notification or quickly jumping into a party if invited. The home screen itself also received some changes from when it was in the beginning stages of the update that was available for insiders.

In addition to the home screen and notification changes, the game hub has also been revamped to allow for easy viewing of the game's news and other important information. Several changes to the lighting and contrast of the menus were also included to allow players to customize their menus even further. Providing an option other than the basic dark menus, light options are also included in the update for the multiplayer tab and the achievement menus. Two high contrast modes, one for the light option and one for the dark, were also previewed during the livestream.

While the UI update was one of the main parts of the livestream that was discussed, two other features that Xbox players have been hoping for were also mentioned: Game gifting and wish lists. The two systems would likely go hand-in-hand, and both were previewed earlier in the year as projects that Xbox was working on. These new features would allow players to build a list of games they wanted, and their friends could then easily send them a digital version of the game through the console's marketplace to check one thing off their list.

More screenshots of the Xbox One's upcoming UI update can be seen at the original story written by DualShockers.