Microsoft Says It'll Make The New Xbox Home UI More Balanced
A new Xbox Home UI is on the horizon, and it is likely to be less cluttered than its predecessors. The move is a response to the company's Home Console Experiments, which saw Xbox Insiders testing out a variety of features in an attempt to make the user experience more pleasant on the consoles. The program involved thousands of Xbox enthusiasts who were essentially beta-testing a variety of features and giving detailed feedback over several months. At the end of the program, the users' consoles are reset back to how they were configured before the experiments started.
In a blog post, Microsoft described how user feedback has shaped its plans for the user interface. The company says: "We heard from you that the changes to the top of Home did not leave enough space for you to enjoy your backgrounds and that it felt crowded. We're working to balance the experience, accessibility, function, and the needs of our community and bring you a great and refreshed Home experience."
As things stand, there isn't a solid timeline for when the changes will be implemented, or exact details on what changes will be made. All that we know is that the Xbox team is "working hard" on it and more information will be available soon.
You don't have to wait to make your Xbox experience better
While the UI improvements will certainly make the Xbox a little better on the quality-of-life side of things, there are plenty of changes you can make right now that can streamline your console experience. On the Xbox Series X|S it's possible to remap a controller to a configuration you find more comfortable. You can also attach certain controllers to specific profiles, so you don't have to waste time rifling through menus every time you turn on the console. If you have a controller you prefer, using it will activate your profile. This is a great feature in households with more than one gamer present.
The official Xbox App is also a huge time saver. You can use it to purchase and download games even when you're out of the house and game on your smartphone over the cloud. You can even manage the storage on your console remotely through the app. It may also be easier to edit your Xbox profile through the app's menus instead of struggling with a controller-based keyboard. If you're the sort of person that keeps a stacked library and is struggling to find a specific game, you can make things a lot easier on yourself with the "game filtering" option. Game filtering allows you to sort titles by genre, console generation, or the number of players. If you prefer total chaos to order, you can also hit a button that boots a random game up.