What you need to know
- The Xbox mobile app now allows you to voice chat with friends.
- This update also adds the ability to share images and videos from your phone's gallery.
- The update is part of a recent, broader push to improve messaging in the app and is available now on Android and iOS.
The latest update to the Xbox mobile app brings voice chat to your conversations. The update began rolling out to both iOS and Android within the last week, and it adds a headset icon that lets you start a voice chat directly from the conversation UI (via MSPU).
This update also adds the option to share videos and photos from your phone's gallery with friends by pressing the "+" icon within any conversation.
Here's a full look at the release notes:
*You can now upload images from your phone into messages! Press the "+" button in a chat to send photos from your gallery or camera. *We have added voice channel support to conversations. Tap the headset icon when in a chat to get started.
In the Android version of the release notes, Microsoft also notes that it has disabled OneGuide while it works on improvements to the experience. There's no indication as to what those improvements may be, but OneGuide will presumably be reintroduced in a future update.
This update is part of a broader push to improve the messaging experience, which Microsoft embarked on earlier this year. In its last update, the Xbox mobile app gained the ability to view GIFs in messages and send clickable weblinks. Prior to that, Microsoft added an improved messaging UI and better spam control to the experience.
The Xbox mobile apps are an extension of the console experience, adding messaging, an activity feed, and more to your phone.
