We are officially halfway through November, and thoughts are quickly moving to many’s favourite season, you know the one that involves Friends and Family, too much food and plenty of gaming sessions in between.
One of Xbox’s greatest successes is the relationship between it’s fans, over on Xbox we have an awesome welcoming community, we are all friends here. And it’s that interaction between the heads of Xbox and yourselves that lead to user feedback being appreciated.
So, once again the heads have listened and have a new update for the console rolling out today, with some exciting new features.
The November 2019 Update delivers Xbox Action for Google Assistant, new improvements for gamertags on console and mobile devices, text filters and even more to help you get the most out of your next gaming session.
Xbox Action for the Google Assistant
Xbox are excited to announce the Xbox Action for the Google Assistant is now publicly available to Xbox One customers in all countries where the Google Assistant is supported. English language is available today, with additional language support coming soon.
With the launch of the Xbox Action for the Google Assistant, you can now interact with your Xbox One in even more ways using just your voice, including the ability to turn your console on and off, launch games and apps, play and pause videos, and more, from any Google Assistant and Home-enabled smart speaker or devices, as well as the Google Assistant apps on iOS and Android.
For more information on the Xbox Action for the Google Assistant, including setup instructions and example commands, please visit the Google Assistant support page on Xbox.com.
The Xbox Action for the Google Assistant joins the Xbox Skill for Alexa as another great option for controlling your console with just your voice, giving you more choice than ever before in how you interact with Xbox.
“Hey Google, play Gears 5 on Xbox.”
Gamertag Improvements on Console
At E3 this past summer, Xbox introduced a plan to revamp gamertags across PC, mobile devices and Xbox One consoles in order to give players around the world more choice in how they represent themselves including 13 additional worldwide alphabets and a new display option. With the November 2019 Xbox Update, these gamertag options are now supported on console, including profiles, friend lists, messages, Clubs, LFG and more. Everyone will be able to see updated gamertags and users creating new Xbox accounts or changing their existing one will have the option to use the new supported characters or add a numbered suffix to a gamertag that has already been claimed.
Current Xbox players can keep their existing gamertags without any further action required on their part and no change in experience from the way that it looks today. There will be no difference in how your gamertag is presented unless you wish to create a new account or change your existing gamertag.
Example of a gamertag utilising newly supported characters
With all these new gamertags, the heads of Xbox wanted to make searching for your friends or new teammates easier than ever. In addition to the updated features for gamertags, Xbox are launching the all-new “People Search” feature which allows you to find others using partial or non-exact search terms.
New “People Search” feature
Xbox text filters
In the November 2019 Xbox Update, you can set your own specific level of automated filtration so you can decide what’s acceptable and what isn’t in the text-based messages you receive across Xbox Live. Filter levels can be customised based on four tiers of filtration – Friendly, Medium, Mature and Unfiltered. And as always, if you receive a message that violates our Community Standards for Xbox, even with filters in place, you can still report this conduct to Xbox Enforcement for follow up.
On your console, you can configure your message safety by going to Settings > General > Online safety & family > Privacy & online safety > Message safety. Whenever you receive a message that’s beyond your safety setting, it’ll be replaced with a [Potentially offensive message hidden] placeholder. You can click on that placeholder to learn more about the settings, and there’s a handy shortcut to go change those settings. Adult accounts will have the ability to choose whether to see what content has been filtered based on the filter they choose.
Set your desired level of message filtration
More Mixer viewing improvements
Building upon the improvements introduced in the October 2019 Xbox Update, this month coder’s at Xbox have been working hard making a couple more great enhancements for Mixer viewers. Thanks to your feedback, you now have the option to move the Mixer chat on the left or right side of your screen or hide it altogether.
Additionally, the subscribe button has received an update, with a reminder to renew when one of your channel subscriptions is within a week of expiration, making it easier to stay subscribed to your favourite Mixer Partners.
Chat Position Options
Subscription Renewal Reminder
Voice-to-Text Dictation
Dictation expands further in the November 2019 Xbox Update with support for more languages! With either a headset or Kinect, you can press the View button whenever the keyboard is on screen to start converting speech to text. To change your preferences from your regional default, head to Settings > System > Language & location to select your keyboard & dictation language.
Supported languages and regions include English (US & Canada), English (India), English (UK), Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), French (Canada), French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese, with more to come in future updates.
Simplified Settings
This month, a new look has been introduced for the console Settings menu, aimed to provide simplicity and greater ease of use. The menu has been condensed and reorganised, with commonly used settings elevated to the top to improve navigation and discoverability for everyone.
Reorganised Settings page
Console setup improvements
Beginning this fall, newly acquired Xbox owners unboxing their new Xbox One consoles will be able to get to the action quicker thanks to improvements with the console setup process. Gamers who buy a brand new Xbox One will have the option to customise their Xbox One’s language, time zone, power settings, and more through the Xbox app for iOS or Android, while the Xbox console is installing the latest system update.
The programmers behind Xbox are always working to improve your gaming experience on Xbox One and will have more announcements in the coming months, I’m sure.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more information and happy gaming!