Microsoft is giving it all, albeit slowly, to its faithful Xbox One owners and gamers. In an effort to continue rolling out updates and enhancing gaming experience, the company announces in a blog post that new system features are in store for fans around the globe in their early access program that will start this week.
The announcement came from Xbox LIVE's Larry Hryb a.k.a Major Nelson on May 2.
"We hope you've been enjoying our most recent Xbox One system update that rolled out last week and we look forward to bringing you even more great features in the months ahead," he writes.
He enumerates the highlights and what to expect out of these features.
Enhanced Sound Mixer. This was added as a result of feedback from their fans who asked for further control on background sound and audio levels. Under Settings section, two features were added to control audio options, which allow the gamer to manage the volume level of two applications when using the Snap and lets you decided which of these apps is louder. Under the same section, the gamer can also control or manage the volume level when using Kinect for chat.
Opt-In for Better Speech Recognition. The post states that to be able to manage the Xbox One device with voice commands is magical, and they want to pursue with this endeavor for all owners. More voice samples into their algorithms mean the better and the more responsive such device can be for fans, which is why opt-in to collect speech data was included. To make this happen, go to Settings, then to Privacy & Online Safety. Go to Customizing privacy and online safety and then set the Share Voice Data to Allow. More voice samples placed into their algorithms mean the better and more responsive the device is for fans. Again, this is an optional feature and shared voice data through this setting is strictly to improve the product and nothing more.
Next System Update . When the system update is already available, go to Settings and select System Update to roll it in.
Major Nelson also says they are waiting for consumer feedback before the system update gets shipped starting in May.
Microsoft announced last month that over five million Xbox One units were shipped to retailers around the world. Back last fiscal quarter, it sold about 1.2 million of units.
