Microsoft has confirmed that console owners who have opted in to Xbox One‘s Preview program are now able to download the first wave of the system’s April update.
Available from last night, the improvements represent the first phase of new features to be made available for the program, with the company confirming plans to begin rolling out additional bells and whistles expected in the full April patch next week. In taking to his official blog, Larry Hryb — aka Major Nelson — detailed the trio of new-fangled additions that are headed to the Xbox One.
Party chat improvements – Party chat is being improved with troubleshooting guidance for Xbox One owners. The Party App will help you get your microphone enabled and show you when privacy settings or networking issues are blocking communication with particular party members.
Game hub links – Members can more easily discover game hub content from activity feed items. You’ll see activity feed items when any of your friends follow a game, and you’ll also be able to get back to a game’s hub from activity feed posts related to the game – including feed items about the game’s achievements, game clips and screenshots. Finally, we’ve added a link to game hubs from the game’s page in the achievements app.
Achievement notifications – With this preview release, you’ll also see the achievement’s description in the notification so you know what you did to earn this achievement without having to open the achievements app. If you do choose to open up the notification to see the achievement details, we’ve also made some performance improvements to make loading the achievements app from a notification faster.
Microsoft often utilizes this pre-release window as a means of testing the monthly update prior to its official launch. With a second batch of features due next week, all Xbox One owners can expect the patch to make its debut at the start of next month.
