Microsoft has started testing this week a new simplified Xbox Guide with select Xbox Insiders, which follows a recent revamp of the Xbox Home experience with the February 2020 system update. The new Guide combines text chats and Xbox Live Parties in a single tab, while the dedicated settings tab has disappeared to let the Profile tab display necessary settings and features. Microsoft is also allowing testers to customize these new Guide tabs from this new Profile & System tab.
Here’s the summary of all the changes on Xbox Wire:
- Parties & chats – Jump into messages, interact with invites, and start a party all from this combined tab. Parties & chats gets you connected immediately!
- Profile & system – This tab now has Settings, audio, customization, and power options in addition to user switching and your profile. In the middle of the game and need to make a quick change? You can now do that from the Profile & system tab!
- Additional Changes to Guide
- App and system notifications now display under the bell icon with other alerts when you open Guide – you no longer have to navigate to a separate tab to find out what’s new!
- Looking for Group can now be found in the People tab next to the “Find someone” option.
As of this writing, these Guide improvements are only available for a subset of Xbox Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead, Alpha, Beta, and Delta rings currently testing the 2004 System Update for the Xbox One. As the Xbox team is still listening to feedback from Xbox Insiders about this new Guide experience, it’s not guaranteed yet that these changes will ship with the next Xbox One system update coming next month.
