Previously only available for Xbox One preview members, the May console update is finally here for all Xbox One owners.
This month's improvements includes a long requested feature: voice messaging. On the Xbox 360, players could record and send voice messages to friends, but that hasn't been the case on Xbox One. Now next-gen gamers can record and leave voice messages for friends via the Xbox One messaging app. Even better, those messages can be sent between Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners, so you can still keep your last-gen buddies in the loop.
On the subject of talking, this month's update brings added stability to Xbox One's party chat system. Party chat will now be supported by dedicated servers. Initially this feature will only be working for Xbox One preview members, but will expand as Microsoft continues to test the service.
"We enabled dedicated chat relay servers for Xbox One preview members to solve NAT traversal issues that prevented some people from being able to use party chat," Microsoft says in its official blog post on the update. "Over the coming weeks, we will start to expand the availability of the party chat relay services beyond preview members to a broader audience as we continue to fine tune the feature and scale out the servers needed to support party chat relay services."
Also in the May update is the ability to set your console's preferred Power Mode upon initial setup, as well as the means to turn your Xbox One on and off via the Xbox Smartglass app available on Widows, iOS and Android devices. You can check out some of the update's new functionality in action via the video below.
It's nice to see two often requested features (voice messaging and the Smartglass functionality) at long last make their way to Microsoft's console. These monthly updates have steadily been improving the Xbox One bit by bit. If nothing else, it shows Microsoft is listening.
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