An update for the Xbox One Preview program and the Xbox app beta will begin to roll out today, Microsoft announced. It will add a variety of new features to the console, among them increased party chat and Xbox 360 functionality.
Both the Major Nelson blog and the video above detail much of what's included in the update, which Preview participants can download today; an update for the Xbox app beta test will be available starting tomorrow.
As seen up top, features now available for Xbox One Preview include the ability to buy Xbox 360 backward compatible games directly on Xbox One; members can now search for these releases as they would Xbox One downloadable games.
Preview members can also now use party chat during Twitch broadcasts, and there's the option to listen to party chat through both headsets and speakers at once. Another party chat update: 16 people can now use the mode simultaneously. This latter expansion applies to both the Preview program and the Xbox app.
Achievements can now be tracked in the Xbox One guide for Preview members, and video playback is available in the Activity Feed. Participants can also now set the length of Game DVR recordings.
For Xbox app beta testers, the Xbox One's Gamerscore leaderboard is now available to use. That's a feature that the console received just last month.
Not yet available is an update for the Activity Feed on the Xbox app beta and the Preview program; later this month, it will automatically show new Xbox 360 achievements.
Microsoft made several other recent announcements about its home console. Microsoft's head of Xbox Phil Spencer discussed the console's future during a press conference last week, telling the audience that the Xbox One could receive upgrades in lieu of the company releasing an entirely new piece of hardware.
"I look at the ecosystem that a console sits in and I think that it should have the capability of more iteration on hardware capability," Spencer told Polygon following the conference.
