Xbox One Home Page Gets Overhaul With Insider Update
Microsoft is giving the Xbox home page a major facelift as part of the company's first implementation of their new Fluent Design concept. Xbox One users enrolled in the Insider program's alpha ring got their first look at the new changes as the update first rolled out on Monday, Aug. 7.
Overall, the changes have been an improvement from the old Xbox interface, as The Verge noted. Following a trend started with earlier attempts at improving the Xbox home page, menus are now snappier, with screens loading faster in between switching to and from a running game and the console's home, social, and app pages.
Xbox One users in the Insider program will first notice the drastic overhaul of the Home screen. The new screen now has a focus on customization, with users now able to set up the space however they want with sections dedicated to pinned content and shortcuts.
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The influence of the new Fluent Design system is now apparent, as new animations, glowing highlights and translucent textures are the norm with the console's new theme. Content blocks now update with the latest information related to the app or item, similar to Windows, as noted by Windows Central.
Microsoft has also ditched the vertical tabs in their overhaul of the Xbox Guide, going back to more compact, horizontal icons reminiscent of the Xbox 360 guide. So far, early videos of the new guide in action show tabs including the dashboard, store, pins, recently used apps, as well as new "Communication" and "Broadcast & Capture" tabs.
The Community Section now comes up as an Activity Feed similar to a social media app, with information about recent activities and updates arranged into a set of compact blocks similar to Office 365 activity cards.
The video below provides a short overview of the changes that the new major Xbox system overhaul will bring as Microsoft shifts over their console to the new Fluent Design.
