Xbox One Fall 2015 update includes Cortana, a redesigned Home, and more

Microsoft had a lot on its plate yesterday, which is why they didn't focus on the upcoming changes to the user interface of the Xbox One. Today, we're learning it's going to be one doozy of an update.

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Microsoft will be launching the Xbox One’s first major user interface overhaul in an update expected to be released this fall.

There are going to be a lot of changes coming to this update, which includes Cortana integration, a completely redesigned UI that allows for faster access to content, additional avatars, and more. Here’s the full list of content expected to be delivered in the upcoming fall update:

  • A redesigned Home: We’ve redesigned Home to surface your most-used Xbox content. You can scroll vertically to see your recently played games with deeper information about the content and games you are using. You can see game DVR clips, achievements and add-ons for your games and can also quickly discover new content
  • A new guide: Gaming must-haves like friends, party invites and messages can be accessed directly from Home or while in a game. Scroll left from Home or double-tap the Xbox button while in a game and the guide will slide over on the left side of the screen. From here you can access gaming must-haves like your friends list, party invites, messages, and notifications
  • Community section: We’ve expanded upon the current Friends section so gamers can more quickly and easily access all their social activities. This includes the Activity Feed to see the latest updates from friends and game developers as well as What’s Trending on Xbox Live to interact with the most popular games and content currently on Xbox Live. Scroll right from Home to see what games your friends have been playing, interact with their posts and see the top things happening on Xbox Live right now
  • Xbox Avatars: We saw the passion from the community toward Xbox Avatars and are excited to bring them back in a more prominent way on Xbox One. We are modernizing the look of avatars with better image quality, keeping all the familiar customizations fans loved on Xbox 360
  • Cortana comes to Xbox One: On Xbox One, Cortana becomes your personal gaming assistant. Cortana helps you elevate your game, gets smarter over time, and works across all your Windows 10 PCs, tablets and phones (Cortana will also soon be available on iPhone and Android phones). Through voice commands on Xbox One, Cortana will assist you to more quickly find great games, new challengers and friends on Xbox Live, or accomplish common tasks. Cortana can also help you get achievements by surfacing videos and information to help you succeed. Working across Windows 10 PCs, tablets, phones, Xbox One, and iPhone and Android phones, Cortana can assist you wherever are you are – like setting an important reminder from your phone to receive on your Xbox One when you log on at home. Cortana will launch first in the U.S. and the U.K. on Xbox One this fall

Microsoft has also published a video highlighting a number of the big changes coming to the Xbox One fall update, which you can check out below.

We realize Microsoft was busy announcing Gears 4, Halo 5: Guardians' Warzone, and it's new super-expensive Xbox One controller, but with the amount of changes it will make to the console, they should have given all of their hard work some time during its E3 press conference. But we guess hearing about backwards compatibility is just a tad more important.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 16, 2015 8:52 AM

    Daniel Perez posted a new article, Xbox One Fall 2015 update includes Cortana, a redesigned Home, and more

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      June 16, 2015 9:04 AM

      So, this was posted over on reddit but I think it's accurate, "We've come full circle"

      http://i.imgur.com/ueyxK0S.jpg

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        June 16, 2015 9:12 AM

        Anything is an improvement over the current travesty. Even the current 360 UI is way better. The blades were fantastic in terms of how quickly you could navigate and access things, and it looks like that's their focus here. I hope.

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          June 16, 2015 9:22 AM

          Yeah, they weren't pretty, but the blade UI was one of the quickest I ever used.

          The existing XB1 layout is pretty great if you use a select few things which remain on the Home screen all the time, but getting around otherwise is really slow.

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          June 16, 2015 12:20 PM

          The current travesty is exactly that. Its slow as fuck, hard to navigate, etc. Hopefully this update fixes it as it shows.

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        June 16, 2015 9:21 AM

        well it makes sense to redesign the UI when the original was centered around voice and now most people aren't using voice

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          June 16, 2015 9:26 AM

          I'm not saying this isn't better. They tweaked the 360 so much from the original blades design through the years, I fully expect this to not be the final UI either. Heck, even compared to the day 1 dash, the current Xbox One has already seen major tweaks.

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        June 16, 2015 11:19 AM

        [deleted]

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      June 16, 2015 9:30 AM

      But will the voice commands work without Kinect?!

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      June 16, 2015 9:36 AM

      [deleted]

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      June 16, 2015 9:51 AM

      Awesome, can't wait to control my tv and stuff with Cortana.

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