Xbox One Update October 2019 Details

October 8, 2019 at 4:01pm
By Jason Stettner

The Xbox One October update has been detailed with a number of improvements to the ecosystem and the dashboard for the console family. All of that information to follow.

App and game limits for Family Settings
With the new app and game limits feature, they introduce two new key elements to screen time: Parents can now set how much time their children spend within specific apps or games in addition to the total time spent on a device. Parents have the added option to set limits at the app or game level, enabling you to be more specific with how your kids are spending their time with technology.

The app and game limits you set will apply across Windows devices and Xbox One. Microsoft wants to provide families the convenience of setting this up once, and letting it carry over across your child’s devices. This means one hour of a specific game or app per day is one hour of that game or app – no trying to sneak in extra screen time by switching from one device to another.

Wish List notifications
This feature is enhanced with notifications to alert you when an item in your Wish List has a price discount. The new Wish List notifications will make sure you never miss a great deal on games you want.

Mixer viewing improvements
Mixer is integrating even further into the Xbox One experience with the October update. They’ve built a full Mixer viewing experience right into the dashboard with a focus on speed and simplicity. Viewers will no longer have to navigate to a separate app to enjoy Mixer streams, so getting to the content you want to watch has never been easier. Simply click the stream you’d like to watch to seamlessly start watching.

Recommend an Xbox Game Pass title
Games are more fun when shared with friends. Xbox Game Pass for Console has a curated library of over 100 games, so you may find a gem that you want to share with your friends. You can now recommend a game from Xbox Game Pass for Console directly to your friend via a message or to your whole community via your activity feed or share to a club. Your friends will be able to easily get to the page for the games you recommend and can start downloading right away if they are an Xbox Game Pass member.

Recent Players improvements
Thanks to your feedback, they’ve made significant improvements to the Recent Players experience, making the service more reliable and allowing you to connect with the gamers you play with instantly. They now finally understand the popularity of this feature and know it can be especially helpful with large-scale multiplayer games. You can now more quickly and easily engage with your Recent Players, whether you are sending a message, inviting players to a party, or adding them to your Friends List.

Under-the-hood game update improvements
Players can jump into their favorite games even faster with the October update. They have added improvements to automatic game updates, significantly reducing when you encounter the “update required” screen when launching a title.

Events app
Later this month, you may notice the Events app installed on your console. With Events, the team will be introducing new ways for gamers to discover and be reminded of events happening within your favorite Xbox games or gaming communities such as a start of a new season or in-game holiday events.

More flexible Capture Settings and Capture & Share experiment
The “Allow game captures” setting now has multiple options, giving you more control over your game capture experience. Previously, game capture could either be enabled or disabled in Settings, with certain games automatically recording memorable moments when this feature was enabled. With the October update, you may now select between “Captures by me,” “Captures by me or games,” or “Don’t capture” settings, providing you more choice over how you build your highlight reel.

In addition to the above, some people may also see an experimental update we are making to improve the Capture & Share experience. For now, they’re rolling out an improved “Capture & Share” tab for a limited portion of the Xbox One audience to gauge interest and collect feedback.

The renamed “Capture & Share” Guide tab aims to improve usability by elevating your three capture options, “Record what happened,” “Start recording,” and “Capture screenshot,” to the top of the screen as well as allowing you to quickly revisit your last capture. When you’re ready to share, the following “Share to” menu has also been updated to focus more on what you want to do with your content – quickly and easily share it with your friends, the world via Twitter or your Xbox Activity Feed, or save it in your collection for safekeeping.

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