Totalxbox.com just confirmed some information about Xbox One’s upcoming April update and Microsoft seems to be consistent by giving the fans what they’ve been asking for. As mentioned earlier in their article by Aoife Wilson, the April update will include the addition of the Xbox 360’s friend notifications on the Xbox One, as well as improving the video quality of the Game DVR app.
– 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 actually was one of the most frequently requested features from the first preview wave and we made it a priority to include it in the April update. Also, friends who are in multiplayer will be identified in the friends list. We’ll also add the ability to view friends’ most popular apps.
– Blu-ray 50 Hz video output support for content recorded at 50 Hz will resolve video playback issues some Xbox Live members in Europe are experiencing.
– Kinect voice and motion improvements will continue to fine tune the quality and reliability of Xbox One commands.
– Improved Game DVR video quality through compression algorithm improvements.
– Updates to Xbox One device management to address issues controlling TVs, set top boxes, and receivers that our customers have reported.
– New audio settings to tune how much volume is lowered when Kinect is used in communications.
Kinect voice command updates are always welcome and I hope the update makes it easier for the Kinect to differentiate between me saying “Xbox, go to OneGuide” and “Xbox, go to OneDrive“, because it’s been really struggling with that one lately. Improving the quality of footage recorded via Game DVR is also pretty significant, especially for those of us who rely on the feature for blogging and uploading our gameplay to YouTube.
Friend notifications is something that I was surprised was missing from the initial launch, but they’ve claimed it was the most requested addition to the Xbox One’s UI. Looks like we’re getting what we ask for this April!
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