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February Xbox update launching this week with social features and more

Bringing you and your friends closer together

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Microsoft is rolling out the February update across Windows 10 and the Xbox One, bringing new features to users like the ability to see who's in a party and rearrange homescreen pins, the company announced today.

The system update is launching in the Xbox app on Windows 10 today, and will be released on Xbox One tomorrow.

On the console side, the February update is focused on new social elements like allowing you to see who's in a party before you join — a feature that has been available on PlayStation 4 for a while. You'll also be able to track your achievement progress relative to your friends with the new Gamerscore leaderboard.

Other new features include notifications for new items in the Activity Feed plus the ability to rearrange pinned items on the dashboard. Microsoft has also brought back the option to hide games from the "ready-to-install" list, and introduced a dashboard shortcut for redeeming Xbox Games Store codes. In addition, there are now easier ways to join Twitch broadcasts and the ability to program hotkeys on the Xbox One Chatpad.

Some of this month's updates are coming to both the Xbox One and the Xbox app, such as the Avatar Store; news updates, trending topics and suggested friends in the Activity Feed; and updates to the accessories app. In the Xbox app alone, the February update adds a "compact mode" for quick access to important features while you're multitasking.

You can listen to this story — and many more — in the episode of Polygon's daily news podcast, Minimap, below.


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