Xbox and PC get a little closer to the latest Xbox updates



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Xbox and PC get a little closer to the latest Xbox updates

The May 2019 update of the Xbox One system software is being rolled out and is making some improvements to the friend list, messaging, and games / apps list.

Starting from the last one, the list of applications will now ignore "a", "a" and "the" when sorting or grouping them alphabetically. This is the kind of change that makes me surprised that they are not doing it already, as it almost always makes the lists easier to use. Video games do not even have The the fight against.

The messaging change is rather inexplicable. There's a sensible change: your friends' incoming email requests are now prioritized, with non-friend requests in a separate category. But for some reason, Microsoft will remove all messages from the group. You can save backups of messages for a limited time on Xbox.com. Messages with individual users are secure, but messages in the group are all sent. There is no obvious justification for this change, because even if there were significant changes to the group messaging, one would expect Microsoft to handle the migration of messages from old to new.

The most interesting change, however, is that of the list of friends. Microsoft adds flags next to each friend's name online to indicate whether they are participating in a console game, whether they use the Xbox app on Windows or the Xbox app on a smartphone. This should make it easier for you to know who you can invite to games, especially as cross-platform play becomes more common. In addition, this highlights Microsoft's desire to make Xbox a game brand independent of any hardware: you're still part of the Xbox ecosystem if you're on PC or mobile. The Xbox is not the hardware: the Xbox plays games with your friends wherever they are.

On the PC side, the Windows 10 game bar is being called Xbox Game Bar and the latest preview also includes the "Group Search" feature used to search for people who play the game you want to play . Launch a people search to join your game, and you will be informed not only about the PC, but also about the Xbox, as someone has been found. This feature was previously available on Windows in the Xbox appbut putting it in the game bar makes it faster and easier to use.

Overall, it seems that Microsoft blurs the boundaries between Xbox, PC and Mobile games, and we can expect these lines to become even more blurred in the future. The Xcloud gaming service further reduces these platform differences: if the premium experience is offered on the console or on a high-end PC, streaming games must allow for many games. be playable on just about any material. The last piece missing would surely be the ability to play Xbox games on PC. There are already signs that Microsoft is working on it, but such a change would further strengthen this shift from console hardware to gaming, wherever you are.

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