You don't have to wait until March to see the changes coming to the Xbox One's party and friend systems, thanks to a video released today on the official Xbox YouTube channel.
Press play above to see Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb and engineer Richard Irving give a guided tour of the new features, which players can preview through Microsoft's recently announced beta program.
They begin with a tour of party chat, whose interface has been reorganized to make it easier to distinguish between who you're playing with and who you're chatting with. A new "Invite party to game" option will transport a party to the game you're playing. Voice chat will also be enabled by default in parties, and that represents the "number one most requested feature," according to Irving.
Changes headed to the friends list were also driven by player feedback.
"The most important thing is, it's faster to access your online friends," Irving said. "Our data and research showed that the majority of people were going just to check the online status of friends, and so now, it's three button clicks or one voice command away to see that."
The update will also allow players to designate favorites, who will appear at the top of potentially crowded friends lists that can support up to 1,000 users. A new "Recent players" list will be available and populate based on those you've met online recently.
Announced earlier this month, the Xbox One system update is set to arrive before Titanfall's March 11 launch. Microsoft and Twitch also announced today that Twitch gameplay streaming would arrive March 11.
