Xbox One update adds requested features — here’s what’s different

After a big update in November, Microsoft is getting back to adding smaller features to the Xbox One.

The publisher announced that it’s starting to roll out improvements for the Xbox One for anyone in the Preview program. This patch brings some community-requested features, like the capability to see who is in a party before joining it. And it also introduces some general fixes that should make the console run smoother and better at showing information that players are looking for.

These changes should go live for everyone either later this month or sometime in the near future. This is all part of Microsoft’s efforts to update the Xbox One once per month throughout the year (with the exception of December), and that trend is continuing into 2016. As part of this initiative, Microsoft has a feedback website where Xbox One owners can make suggestions — and many of this month’s improvements come directly from that community. Keeping those dedicated fans happy is vitally important to the health of the Xbox One. Sony’s PlayStation 4 is outselling Microsoft’s hardware worldwide, but the Xbox One can stay relevant if it keeps its install base engaged and buying games.

Below, you can find the list of big changes that you can expect to see once your Xbox One updates:

• See who is in a party before joining.
• Gamerscore leaderboard is back. It will show both total Gamerscore and who has gained the most points in the last 30 days.
• You can rearrange pinned apps and games — they will also show up even if the Xbox One is offline.
• Activity feed will notify you when it has new items for your to view.
• Game Hubs and game tile will enable you to launch directly into Twitch if a friend is broadcasting the game.
• You can hide games from the “ready to install” list.

Microsoft is also launching improvements that will show up both on the Xbox One system and its related apps:

• Avatar Store is now integrated into the Avatar app.
• Xbox News, which gives information on new games, hardware, and more, will start to show up in the activity feed.
• Trending will now provide more and better information on the games, movies, and shows that are popular with Xbox Live gamers at the moment.
• Suggested friends gets a change that will make it easier to see specific details about people Xbox Live thinks you may want to add as a friend.
• New compact mode for Xbox app on PC.