Xbox One Update Coming Next Month: Improved SmartGlass And Friends List, External Drive Support, More Features

Microsoft will launch its next Xbox One update next month, and Director of Programming for Xbox Larry Hyrb explained the improvements in an Xbox blog post Wednesday.

“With the next system update coming in June, we’re thrilled to announce two of your most-requested features will be here soon: external storage support and real names for identifying your friends,” Hyrb announced. He also emphasized the importance of player feedback when it came to future improvements for the console.

“Since our launch of Xbox One last year, we’ve been hard at work to continue making Xbox One the best destination for all your gaming and entertainment experiences. Because of the way we’ve designed the Xbox One platform, we’ve been able to continually improve the product for you with a more regular cadence of system and app updates. Your feedback for what you want most has been our guiding light for these updates, and will continue to be as we work to bring the fan-favorite features you want most.”

Besides real names and external storage support, the Xbox Live experience will also allow players to utilize the new SmartGlass capabilities, including Universal Remote Control and OneGuide. You will also be able to select an account for automatic sign-in.

“Your Xbox One system will soon support up to two external hard drives at once,” Hyrb added. “Simply plug in your 256 GB or larger USB 3.0 external hard drive and once formatted, copy and move games, apps and game add-ons to increase your storage capacity at home.”

Players will also gain the ability to take their content on the go. You can get straight into a game directly from an external drive or take your content to a friend’s home. This new update eliminates having to re-download a title along with its DLC. With external storage, players are able to copy full games and all of its accompanying downloadable content.

As for a more personalized friends list? Microsoft also improved this feature.

“With Xbox One you can have 1,000 friends and infinite followers, but as these lists grow it can become increasingly more difficult to remember the people you know by their gamertag alone,” Hyrb said. “Now with real names feature you can recognize people on your friends list and more easily discover people you already know who are on Xbox Live.”

Xbox companion SmartGlass will also see a multitude of changes.

“After getting great feedback from our SmartGlass beta, we’re thrilled to be bringing the entire OneGuide experience and Universal Remote Control to SmartGlass. Now in supported markets you can view all of your TV listings on your SmartGlass device and set and view your favorite channels and app channels on your smart phone, tablet or PC,” Hyrb explained. “With the Universal Remote Control, you can also easily switch channels, set new recordings and select and control recorded content from your DVR. Another great companion feature now in SmartGlass is pin reordering. With the touch of your finger you can easily organize your pins in categories or favorites based on your preferences and have those changes refresh to your console.”

The Xbox One’s TV and OneGuide features that were available to select Xbox Live members last month will be accessible to everyone in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, U.K. and Italy next month. The improvement will bring Kinect voice commands and updated settings that provide better power management and control of your devices.

Excited for the update? What type of improvements do you want to see on the Xbox One? Leave a comment below.