Xbox One’s first 2016 update brings Party preview, Gamerscore Leaderboard, more

Kip Kniskern

Microsoft is getting the new year started off with a bang, introducing a number of new features and improvements for the Xbox One experience that will begin rolling out to Xbox One Preview members today. The features will also begin rolling out to Windows 10 PCs and mobile apps next week. These updates focus on improving social features, and bringing Xbox Community features closer together across Xbox, PC and mobile, according to a Mike Ybarra blog post on the Xbox Wire this morning.

The list of social improvements is a long one, including:

  • See who’s in a Party – This much requested feature is coming to Xbox One, and allows you to see who is in a Party before joining. Find a friend who is in a party, check out their profile, click on ‘chat’, and see who they’re in a Party with.
  • Gamerscore Leaderboard – The Leaderboard allows you to see where you stand relative to your friends, and see the biggest gains over the last 30 days.
  • Rearrange Pins, and launch them from offline – You can now organize Pins to your liking, and launch Pinned games or apps when you are offline.
  • Activity Feed updates – The Activity Feed will let you know when there are new items in your feed and you can click on the Activity Feed to get to the latest posts.
  • Joinable Twitch Broadcasts – It’s now easier to launch Twitch broadcasts, straight from the Game Hub and from game tiles.
  • Suggested Friends improvements – The latest update will offer you Suggested Friends in the Community area, with a gamertag, avatar, real name (if shared), and a reason why the gamer is being suggested.
  • Hide games from the ready-to-install list – The ability to hide trials, games and apps from the Ready to Install list has been re-enabled.

There’s plenty more in what’s turning out to be quite an update, including improvements to Xbox News, a newly integrated Avatar Store, and more, be sure to check out our companion post on the gaming platform improvements.