The company is starting to test the new Xbox Home UI for Insiders this week. For everyone else, the UI will come to the Xbox consoles in 2023. Amongst the new UI ideas is a change to the design and layout to make accessing games and applications easier. Microsoft says it will conduct testing experiments through the Insider Program over the coming months before a wider rollout: “We know the Xbox homepage is where our gamers spend the most time, and it’s a space that’s very personal,” says Ivy Krislov, senior product manager lead of Xbox experiences. “We also know we can always be listening and learning how we can do better here while keeping your experience fast and familiar. With that, we’re kicking off a multi-month series of experiments to learn how to create a more personalized home screen experience and address some of the top trends and fan requests.”
Available Now
While the test is rolling out to Xbox Insiders this week, only a subset of users will be getting it. Specifically, a random selection of users on the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring can access the new Home UI right now. However, the first preview is limited and includes only the “jump back in” row on the Xbox Home page. This section currently shows recent games and apps. With the new UI, it is a smaller tile and it appears more like the Xbox TV app. In fact, the Xbox TV app seems to serve as the general inspiration for the new Xbox Home UI. For example, the new Home will get the search and quick access settings at the top, which is also from the TV app. “We want to ensure this experience is the best it can be, and we know getting it right will take some time which is why we will be rolling it out slowly and iterating throughout the process,” adds Krislov. “With your input, we’re looking forward to launching this new, better Home experience in 2023.” Tip of the day: Is your system drive constantly full and you need to free up space regularly? Try Windows Disk Cleanup in extended mode which goes far beyond the standard procedure. Our tutorial also shows you how to create a desktop shortcut to run this advanced method right from the desktop.
