What's in Microsoft's April Xbox One Update?

Microsoft's Major Nelson on Wednesday night announced that the company had started rolling out the next system update for the Xbox One. This update has been previewed by members who volunteered to provide feedback ahead of its general release. The update was actually due last month, so it's taken a bit longer than expected to roll out across all consoles.

So what can you expect in this update? A few new features, a few improvements, and some stuff you'll recognize from the Xbox 360. Microsoft says the ability to see when your friends come online is something Xbox 360 gamers have been missing since upgrading, so this feature is being brought back. Major Nelson described it as 'one of the most frequently requested features,' so Redmond made it a priority for this update. This update also includes a controller and headset adapter firmware update that's designed to reduce audio static and improve wireless connectivity. Users will have to plug in their controllers to update the firmware.

Check the full list of updates below (via Major Nelson):

Game and app saves and updates. A game save progress bar will show you the status of your game saves. You will also be able to easily tell what games and apps are being updated or have been updated recently.Friends improvements. Notifications will be added to see when favorites and friends sign in to Xbox Live. This was one of the most frequently requested features, so we made it a priority to include it in this update. Also, friends who are in multiplayer will be identified in the friends list.Kinect voice and motion improvements will continue to be fine-tuned for quality and reliability of Xbox One commands. For example, we've updated some of the gesture functionality to reduce false positives on non-hand objects triggering gesture commands.Improved GameDVR video quality through compression algorithm improvements.Blu-ray player supports 50 Hz of video output for content recorded at 50 Hz. We'll also be updating the Blu-ray player app in the coming days to round out these improvements.Controller and headset adaptor firmware updates will reduce audio static and improve wireless connectivity.Silent reboot after system updates and system update on demand now available. If your console is in Instant On mode, the update will happen automatically and return to standby upon completion. This means you won't need to power on your console after an update moving forward. If you want to take future updates when available without waiting for your console to do it on its own, we've added this option under system settings and you'll be able to use it next update. It will only show as available when there is an update to take.

Read more: Xbox One Review

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