Big point of criticism should soon be history
The Xbox dashboard has been a thorn in the side of many gamers for what feels like an eternity. Now Microsoft is finally taking on the criticism. Members of the Xbox Insider Program can now test a first version of the new dashboard and give Microsoft feedback.
updated: That went faster than expected. Just a few weeks ago, Microsoft announced that the Xbox team would be ramping down updates for Insider program members in preparation for the release of major dashboard patches – now the first update seems to be rolled out.
in one official blog entry the company announced that alpha testers are now a Try new Xbox dashboard and Microsoft can then provide feedback. Particular attention was paid to the following three points:
- New quick access menu designed to simplify navigation to the Library, Microsoft Store, Xbox Game Pass, Search, and Settings at the top of the Home screen.
- More space on the dashboard so the background is more visible. For this, some tiles have been reduced in size and moved to the bottom edge of the screen.
- New background graphic is displayed when hovering over the game in the dashboard.
Xbox is working on a new home experience
In September 2022, Microsoft kicked off a new project aimed at revamping the Xbox dashboard. In order to be able to respond directly and as quickly as possible to the wishes of the players, it was decided to roll out these changes directly via the Insider program and to ask the fans for feedback.
Over many months were repeatedly minor adjustments to the dashboard adopted, which should make it easier for the players to use. Now, however, the team is pressing the pause button and seems to want to evaluate the collected results properly. in one official Xbox blog entry announced that the experiments with the start menu are on hold and that they want to prepare for the release of major updates.
A big wish of the community was particularly emphasized by the developers:
“You told us that the changes to the upper part of Home would make you not leave enough space to enjoy your backgrounds and that it feels too cramped. We are working to balance the experience, accessibility, function and needs of our community and bring you a great and refreshed Home experience.”
Are you running out of storage space on your Xbox? We’ll tell you how you can increase this – and what the different advantages and disadvantages of the methods are:
How to join the Xbox Insider Program
If you want to test new Xbox functions as early as possible and give the developers feedback, the best thing to do is to download the Xbox Insider Bundle and register for the program on your Xbox.
If you’ve done that, you’ll be provided with new console updates in advance in the future. Only problem: There can still be numerous bugs and errors in this system software. However, if you don’t have a problem with that, you can use it to test future Xbox features earlier than all other players.
