Xbox One May System Update Released

The May System Update for Xbox One was released a little earlier on today, bringing with it a whole host of new features that users have been heavily requesting for a long period of time. Most notably making an appearance this month is the ability to send voice messages through the console as well as dedicated servers for voice and party chat.

The full list of additions and their explanations can be found below, courtesy of Xbox's website.

"Voice Messages – Starting today, you can now send and receive voice messages from the Xbox One messages app. This is the No. 1 feature requested in the Friends and Parties area on the Xbox Feedback site > “Add audio message …” Quickly and easily record audio to send to your friends or others through your snapped messages app, accessed through a simple quick double tap of the Xbox button. Additionally, voice messages can be exchanged between Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles. 

Power On/Off from Xbox One SmartGlass – The Xbox One SmartGlass app for Windows, Windows Phone, iOS and Android are being updated to let you power your Xbox One on and off when your devices are on the same home network as your console. This feature request has more than 4,000 votes on the Xbox Feedback site.

User Selectable Power Mode – We are also altering the initial setup experience on Xbox One worldwide to enable you to select your preferred power mode. Instant-on enables you to use the “Xbox on” voice command and receive background updates to console, game and app updates. Energy-saving mode is a low power state that requires you to press the Xbox button on your console to start up your Xbox One. For additional information, see this post on Xbox Wire.

Dedicated Servers for Party Chat – Back in March, we enabled dedicated chat relay servers for Xbox One preview members to solve NAT traversal issues that prevented some people from being able to use party chat. Over the coming weeks, we will start to expand the availability of the party chat relay services beyond preview members to a broader audience as we continue to fine tune the feature and scale out the servers needed to support party chat relay services."

Gfinity is bringing Counter Strike: Global Offensive back to London with the Spring Masters II, taking place May 15-17th. More information and tickets are available now.

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