Microsoft has announced it’s giving its home screen and voice command features overhauls in its next interface update.
On the Xbox Wire blog, the company showed a screenshot of what its new home interface will look like once the update lands for Xbox Insiders in the Alpha.
“With this new experimental Home design, the first thing you’ll notice is we’ve removed the Twists from the top of Home in favour of separate buttons that launch your gaming experiences,” Bradley Rossetti, Xbox’s Insider team lead, said. “The goal is to let you jump into Xbox Game Pass, Mixer, Xbox Community and Microsoft Store quicker than ever. We’ve also shifted things around to make more room for your recently played titles.”
The new look is still undergoing testing currently, and is only available to Xbox Insiders), and could change by the time it’s fully released. In its current state, it already looks like an improvement as it looks easier to navigate, and rather close to how the PlayStation 4’s interface looks.
The big icon and banner showing the most recent app or game played is put off to a side and takes up less overall space, with more emphasis on the various other apps that have recently been used. The icons for various Microsoft services and apps now have dedicated buttons below the most recently-used app, making them more accessible without giving up too much space.
Voice commands are also seeing some changes, and the most important change is that users will no longer be able to use voice commands directly through your headset; instead, they’ll have to use the Cortana app on an iOS, Android, or Windows device or Alexa.
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