Xbox One April Update is Rolling Out to Consoles

Written by Brandon Hofer on April 15, 2014

News: The April Update for Xbox One brings Friend Notifications, Controller and Headseat Adaptor Updates and more.

The Xbox One April firmware update tonight according to Major Nelson. This new update includes some features that everyone has been wanting since Xbox One launched back in November and they are finally here. Sadly external hard drive support is not one of those features but that should arrive “soon”. The full list of new and improved features introduced with this new update include:

Game and App Saves and Updates - A game save progress bar will show you the status of your game saves. You will also be able to easily tell what games and apps are being updated or have been updated recently.

Friends Improvements - Notifications will be added to see when favorites and friends sign in to Xbox Live. This was one of the most requested features according to Major Nelson. Also, friends who are in multiplayer will be identified in the friends list.

Kinect Voice and Motion Improvements - These will continue to be fine-tuned for quality and reliability of Xbox One commands. For example, they have updated some of the gesture functionality to reduce false positives on non-hand objects triggering gesture commands.

Improved GameDVR Video Quality - This is done through compression algorithm improvements.

Blu-Ray Player Support - Support for 50 Hz output for content recorded at 50Hz. They will also be updating the Blu-Ray Player app in the coming days to round out these improvements.

Controller and Headset Adaptor Firmware Updates - This update will reduce audio static and improve wireless connectivity.

Silent Reboot After System Updates and System Update on Demand Now Available - If your console is in “Instant On” mode, the update will happen automatically and return to standby upon completion. This means you won’t need to power on your console after an update moving forward. If you want to take future updates when available without waiting for your console to do it on its own, they have added this option under system settings and you’ll be able to use it next update. It will only show as available when there is an update to take.

What do you think about these improvements to Xbox One? What do you want to see in May’s firmware update?