Xbox One February update preview brings Game Hubs, TV updates, more

Microsoft's Major Nelson has announced a new update preview for the Xbox One today. The update brings several new features, but the biggest is probably the addition of Game Hubs — a one-stop shop for leaderboards, game broadcasts, and clips based around individual games.

Here's a run-down of what's new in the February preview:

  • Game hubs – New in preview this month, game hubs are the go-to centers for all sorts of interesting content around your favorite games. Every Xbox One game will have a game hub where you can see which of your friends are playing the game, compete with your friends in game leaderboards, dive into the coolest game clips and game broadcasts, and follow the game's VIPs and top players.
  • Custom backgrounds and tile transparency – We listened to your feedback and added additional tile transparency to the Home tiles to make your background images more visible. As a reminder, to set a custom background, go to Settings > My Xbox > My background. Note: some items can't be made transparent due to usage rights/restrictions for certain images.
  • TV updates – We're releasing a lot of updates to the live TV experience and features are being released to additional countries in preview this month:
  • OneGuide for the Netherlands – Support for OneGuide will continue in preview for the Netherlands and the missing channels for the Netherlands OneGuide listings will become available over the next few weeks.
  • TV trending in OneGuide – As you scan the detailed OneGuide TV listings, you can see which shows are trending by a "Trending on Xbox" note and associated icon. Xbox – live TV trending is based on the number of Xbox One owners currently watching that show in each country, pulled from anonymous data collected at a national level. Currently, Xbox TV trending is available to all members in the U.S., UK and Canada.
  • Live TV trending (new countries) – France, Germany, Brazil and Mexico will begin seeing live TV trending data in Xbox OneGuide.
  • Improved control of TVs, set-top boxes and audio/video receivers – Xbox One will work even better with more devices. This month's preview release contains updates to the IR blasting database for new models and addresses issues reported by our fan community.
  • "Trick play" with Xbox One Digital TV Tuner – Preview members with the Xbox One Digital TV Tuner in supported countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) will now be able to see video frames when fast-forwarding or rewinding paused TV on your Xbox One consoles.
  • Live TV streaming on Windows Phone and Android – We are continuing the preview of live TV streaming on Windows Phone and Android devices for Xbox One Digital TV Tuner owners in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

If you're a member of the Xbox One Preview program, you can check these new features out now. What are you guys looking most forward to?

Source: Major Nelson

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Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl