Microsoft’s Major Nelson has detailed how avatars will work when they return to Xbox One this month. Absent from the console for the two years since launch, they will come with some notable improvements over their Xbox 360 counterparts. As he says in his blog post, avatars’ graphical quality have improved. There is now better lighting, shading, and anti-aliasing, which smooths out jagged edges on characters and surfaces. These changes add up to what Major Nelson calls a more “modern feel”.
He notes that avatars on Xbox One share many similarities with avatars on the Xbox for Windows 10 app. Items that have been awarded to you or that you purchased on Xbox 360 will be available and usable on Xbox One as well. Many of the customization features already on Windows 10 will be also be available on Xbox One, like the ability to change height, weight, and other aspects of your avatar's style. The avatars will be used in various places across the new Xbox experience, including in friends’ text posts, activity feeds in game hubs, community area news feeds, and full screen profiles.
The console is also getting a revamped OneGuide. It is now easier than before to find something to watch quickly, especially with the expanded selection of video content from apps on Xbox. It helps you search apps and content you already own or have access to, but also provides access to featured and recommended content that you may not have known about before.
The biggest feature for the new OneGuide is app channels, which allows you to glance at what’s new in video apps like YouTube and Hulu without having to open and go into the apps themselves. Think of them like the widgets that can be used on Android home screens or live tiles on Windows 8 and 10, but for videos.
There have been some updates to the live TV features in the OneGuide as well, like picture-in-picture functionality, which will allow you to watch something while browsing TV listings, in addition to live listings from the Sling TV app, which will allow for integration of channels like AMC, TNT, and HBO.
The new Xbox Experience launches on November 12, along with backwards compatibility. In the meantime, you can also check out the new Games with Gold for November.
