Xbox Series X and S Update Finally Adds Feature PS5 Users Have Exclusively Enjoyed
An Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S update has finally added a feature that PS5 users have been exclusively enjoying, as it’s not only not been available on Xbox Series consoles, but it’s not available on Switch and Switch 2 either. And for most Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S users, it’s still not an option, as this new update has not been rolled out to the public, but to Xbox Insiders. It will come to the former in the coming weeks/months, though.
The Xbox Insiders program is essentially an opt-in early access program that lets Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S get updates and features while they are in their testing phase ahead of the general public; typically a few months in advance. And in this program, there is a new update. This new update does several things, but the most noteworthy is the aforementioned feature.
Xbox Series X Finally Catches Up
As of this week — following an update tackling download speeds — Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S users in the Insiders program, specifically in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring, can now include chat audio in their game captures. According to Microsoft, this is something Xbox fans have been asking for. How it’s determined, we do not know. Presumably it’s information gathered from surveys, early access feedback, and social media channels. It could also just be PR speak. Whatever the case, it is something new.
Each player in any given party controls whether their voice audio is captured, which means it can only be included if players opt in. It’s unclear if this is an all-or-nothing ordeal or if it will capture select parts of the chat audio depending on who has opted in or not. Whatever the case, Xbox players don’t have to be worried about other players easily recording their chat audio without their consent. There are still ways to do this, but it’s not about to be built into the system. Meanwhile, there will also be the option to include game chat audio in your captures as well, but again this will be an opt-in thing, and will presumably be off for users by default.
The update also comes with new ways to view Achievements history, and Wishlists just got bigger, increasing from 300 to 1,000. Lastly, there will now be an option to restore previously synced cloud saves directly from an Xbox console, if the game supports it. So far, the only game that supports it is Forza Horizon 6. Meanwhile, those who need to recover a previous version of their save can browse available cloud save versions directly from the console as well. Microsoft specifically notes this feature is going live to the public sometime next week. There is no such release window for anything else.
While for now these new features are only available to some Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S users, what’s available to all users is a free download of an upcoming Xbox Series X game, out later this month, thanks to a Microsoft Store glitch.