Let a new Guide guide you
Microsoft is again tweaking the Xbox interface, making subtle changes to enhance the user experience. Last week, we told you how the dashboard and UX is being redesigned to be uniform across all devices (Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC, and Android OS). The first wave of alterations is now live on Xbox One for all users.
Streamlining is the name of the game with the August Xbox 2020 Update. The Guide is the main focus, as Microsoft has cleaned up the clutter when the controller’s top-and-center Xbox button is pressed. Now, there seem to be fewer categories, and emphasis is placed on quickly swapping between most recent activities, the dashboard, and the “My Games and Apps” library. The Guide can also be customized to some extent, as the order of the tabs is free to be rearranged.
A handful of options have been relegated to the bottom of the Guide, freeing up space for the top to look cleaner. These are: Notifications, Game Pass, the Xbox Store, search, and volume options. Microsoft has also taken notifications and combined them into a single feed (previously, messages and alerts were separate things) which can be checked and cleared-out from any device.
There’s one more minor-seeming-but-actually-important quality of life change made to the parties system. Now, there are volume levels for individual party members. No more suffering through one friend’s annoying loud microphone, leaving all your other buddies quiet as a mouse.
This isn’t the end of the updates for 2020. Microsoft is slowly morphing the Xbox One UX until it becomes the interface that Xbox Series X will launch with. We’ll see more changes in the coming months as Microsoft works toward getting all devices to look as identical as possible. Check out the gallery below for a visual aid as to what some of these iterations look like.
Xbox One and Xbox Series X UX Gets a Fresh Look and Streamlined Experience [Xbox Wire]
