Xbox One System Update Improves Achievements, Chatting, And More

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According to Microsoft, 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 favorite 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 us will get our 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):

Though, there are a hundred other possibilities, so you should probably just ignore my speculation.

Josh Engen