March Xbox One Update: Social Features and Twitch Support

Last Updated: February 25, 2014

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If you’re an Xbox One owner, you’ve got a lot to look forward to in March. First of all, there’s Titanfall, which we learn more details about every day, and Microsoft is releasing a major update before the game launches.

The update will work out some difficulties with the friend system and bring back popular Xbox 360 features, such as the ability to see people you’ve played games with recently, quickly invite your friends to join you in multiplayer games, and use party chat by default when you create a party. Fans have been asking for these changes, so we’re pleased to report that they’re not far off.

It will also be easier to use the interface, with a clear distinction between players in the same game and chats across games, as well as a message shortcut menu, a quicker way to access friends’ statuses, and the ability to mark certain friends as favorites.

Finally, another feature fans have been anxious for will also come with this update—Twitch integration. Fans have wanted to broadcast their gameplay to Twitch.tv for a while now, especially since broadcasting was supposed to be one of the key features of the Xbox One, but it was delayed until now. Twitch is a highly popular service, with 45 million people visiting the site each month.

Using Twitch on the Xbox One is planned to be more advanced than it is on the PS4, and has been described as “complete integration” by Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. We don’t have all the details, but Microsoft has said you’ll be able to archive your streams right from your Xbox One, and watch streams from all sources, both of which you can’t do from your PS4. Basically, this is going to be a full Twitch experience.

Well, things are looking good for the Xbox One, and we’re pretty sure it isn’t a coincidence that the update for the Twitch app formally launches on March 11, the same date as Titanfall. This entire update is intended to polish things up for the highly-anticipated multiplayer game, and you can bet Twitch will be overloaded with Titanfall broadcasts as soon as possible. If you have an Xbox One, are you going to use Twitch? If you don’t have one, does this make you more inclined to get one? Check out the official videos for the new interface and Twitch integration, and let us know.