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The next Xbox One update will put your friends front and center

Published Sep 9th, 2014 7:45PM EDT
Xbox One Friends Section

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The September update for Xbox One was one of the most substantial updates the console has seen so far, adding the long-awaited media player which had managed to evade both the Xbox One and PS4 since launch. Microsoft plans to keep the ball rolling in October with a few more major additions, most notably the new and improved Friends section which will move to the front of the dashboard for easier access.

In the upcoming Friends section, you’ll be able to keep track of what each of your Xbox Live friends are doing, what games they’re playing and how they stack up on the new Gamerscore leaderboard. The Achievements app has also been updated to allow you to share your achievement with captions and see which of your friends have unlocked which achievements. That way you know who to bother about that one achievement you just can’t figure out.

The Snap Center has received a bit of an overhaul as well. Double tapping the Xbox button will now bring up a quick menu, allowing you to open and close Snap Center or snap a specific app to the side of the screen. Messages and Friends will also be accessible on the Snap app in October, which means you will finally be able to respond to your friends without leaving your game.

The brand new media player is being enhanced in October as well — next month, the media player will support DLNA streaming from your home servers and devices. MKV files will also be supported.

There are plenty of other additions, but these are the highlights. Check out the Xbox Wire for more on the October update and watch the video below to see it in action.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.