Xbox One Firmware Update is now available for everyone

Written by Brandon Hofer on March 05, 2014

News: Major Nelson reveals that a new Xbox One firmware update is now available for everyone improving some features and adding others.

Major Nelson has revealed that the Xbox One March system update is ready and being sent to everyone. These updates usually roll out in waves to try and make sure everyone isn’t trying to download it at once so if you haven’t received the update yet then you should sometime in the near future. If you use “Instant On” with Xbox One the console will automatically check for updates once you turn your system off. This means that once the update is available in your area, the next time you turn your console off it will take the update during off-peak hours. If your console is off completely then the next time you start it up you should be prompted to update it.

This new firmware update brings with it quite a few features including:

Improved Multiplayer & Party Chat

Cross title party chat

Party chat on by default

Easier multiplayer invites

Easier multiplayer joining

Ability to see what the people in your party are doing

Improved Friends List & Profile

Improved friends list utility & speed of access

Ability to see people you recently played games with

See when friends are broadcasting, including live broadcast thumbnails in activity feed

Get to a friend’s profile faster using type-ahead suggestions

Contextual app menu actions on friends list and activity feed items

Enabled more multiplayer (join and invite) actions on user profiles

54 new contest winning gamerpics

Twitch TV Live Streaming Support

Broadcast gameplay on Twitch.tv through Xbox Live (When the updated Twitch app shows up next week)

Voice support for starting and ending broadcast

Bringing Out Social In Home

See favorite friends currently online

See friends broadcasting gameplay

Miscellaneous Shell Improvements

Improved notification center experiences including “quiet mode”

View game clips while in snap mode

Protect user settings with passkey

Browser Improvements

Control Bing and Google maps with gesture and controller

Quick search when highlighting a term on a page

When searching from Bing search on the console, direct link to Internet Explorer in order to see additional web results

New Devices - Driver and Firmware Updates

Firmware update to the Xbox One controller to support the Xbox One stereo headset adapter

Support for 1st and 3rd party headsets

Driver updates for the Xbox One Media Remote

SmartGlass Improvements

Push notification to your device for Xbox Live messages

Quickly see what a friend is doing including presence and recent

Enhanced viewing of personal and a friend’s game progress and clips

Ability to close snap from SmartGlass

Live TV

50Hz fix - users can set the Live TV app to display at 50Hz for full or fill modes

Volume up/down adjustments - User can tailor the number of volume increments when using “volume up” or “volume down” commands

IR blasting of power & volume to TVs/AVRs in all regions

AVR setup maps to include model number for most sound bars or AVRs when setting up TV

Improved Audio and Support

SPDIF (optical out) now supports 5.1 Dolby Digital which enables devices such as sound bars with only Optical in to be able to receive 5.1 Dolby Digital from console over optical.

HDMI output now supports stereo uncompressed, 5.1 uncompressed, 7.1 uncompressed or 5.1 Dolby Digital Live or 5.1 DTS

What do you think about this new update? What would you like to see addressed in a future update? Let us know below.