Microsoft announces the New Xbox Experience, coming this fall to Xbox Series X and Xbox One, teases new Xbox Dashboard

By Zachary Boddy
published

The same great experience wherever you play.

Xbox UI Image
Xbox UI Image (Image credit: Xbox)

What you need to know

  • Ahead of the Xbox Series X launch later this year, Microsoft has announced some changes coming to the Xbox platform.
  • The New Xbox Experience will standardize the UI design of all the Xbox platforms, from Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox on PC.
  • The new UI is focused on design consistency, speed, and overall visibility, and has already been seen in the new Xbox Store.
  • The New Xbox Experience will roll out to the whole Xbox family of devices and apps this fall, alongside the Xbox Series X.

The software experience on an Xbox console has grown in leaps and bounds since its inception in 2013, but in its current iteration looks stale in comparison to the Xbox app on Windows PC's, or the mobile Xbox Game Pass app on Android and iOS devices. In order to rectify this, Xbox has been hard at work on a substantial overhaul, which started with the gradual rollout of a new Microsoft Store on Xbox, which drastically improved the Store's speed, design, and overall usability.

Now, this same design language that can be seen elsewhere in the Xbox family will be coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X consoles this fall with the New Xbox Experience (opens in new tab), which should clean up the UI and UX of the Xbox consoles, and make everything run much more smoothly. According to Microsoft, with the New Xbox Experience, the home screen will load up to 50% faster, and consume 40% less memory, which are considerable upgrades in performance.

https://twitter.com/JezCorden/status/1296092935621140480?s=20

Not only that, it seems the Xbox Dashboard will also benefit from these design language updates, with rounded corners, animated backgrounds, and more consistent spacing. Improvements in this area are always welcomed.

These changes won't just be limited to Xbox consoles, however, as it seems the Android Xbox app will also be getting rebuilt with a new UI, as we reported on earlier this year, which is fantastic to see. Once all of this rolls out, the entire Xbox ecosystem should look better, run faster, and be consistently smooth no matter where you are, be it your console, your phone, or your PC.

Are you excited about this updated experience? What do you think about the changes? Let us know in the comments below!

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Zachary Boddy
Zachary Boddy
Staff Writer

Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter @BoddyZachary.

27 Comments
  • And Series S? :P
  • What gave it away. They haven't figured out that Windows is also getting rounded edged live tiles as seen on search bar.
  • 😂 With details all over place and stores literally stocking up on Series S controllers.. It should be obvious by now.
  • As someone who hasn't used his XB1X in over a year, I have to ask the audience: has the Xbox dashboard changed for the better? Is this any kind of improvement? The Xbox UI changes traditionally seem like change for the sake of change. The move off the original UI didn't seem like it did anything to improve usability, just shuffling things around to keep it fresh. The 360 UI changed a lot, but didn't feel like it actually got a lot BETTER, which should be the goal. It's like they just want to keep people on their toes, relearning basic nav actions all the time.
  • I feel like you have written this same comment before and that was replied to
  • I haven't, but thanks for the informative reply.
  • It has gotten somewhat simpler imo. However there are still ads (which is garbage) and from my perspective the interface is just too much. I welcome similarity or sameness across devices for sure. As to speed I'll believe it when I see it. Xbox is painfully slow at times. So for me on balance this is meh. Quite frankly I would fire the entire UI/UX Xbox team and pilfer folks from Nintendo or Sony. MS is not a UI leader in any way, shape or form. Perhaps Panos should be in charge of UI. I guess not having to learn a new interface for Series X is good, but I had hoped they would make something sleek, fast and simple. Oh well I can dream
  • What do you consider an ad?
    I see a tile for what Game Pass game to play next and then the ultimate sale. I don't consider those ads personally. Also, what areas are slow?
  • See this all the time, I ask the same question and have yet to get a response. What ads? How many, and where are they?
  • Agreed. There are "ads" in the Store, but then, that's the Store, so of course they're trying to sell you new games there. To my recollection, I don't recall seeing ads while looking at my groups or navigating my games and apps. It's possible there's something somewhere (like in another part of the screen) that I've become blind to, but it must not be very intrusive if I don't even notice it.
  • There's usually at least one non-Xbox ad on the dashboard of home. Either for a TV/cable subscription, some trending show or movie that it wants me to subscribe to a network to watch, or energy drinks. All of which are garbage. I recently set up a network wide ad blocker and set it to allow anything from the Xbox domain through. All the "ads" for Xbox Game Pass and stuff are obviously still there, but now I have a blank transparent square where those third party ads used to be. It's great, but it was also frustrating to confirm that they were in fact ads.
  • Those toyota ads. There is one "Ad" on the very right box. It can vary from games to sales, this time it's more focused on game sales.
  • The only ad I see is for a game or game related and its just 1 single tile. People gonna cry about every little fn thing! Come on....
  • If you are really that interested and you do have an Xbox one X, why not just turn it on and see for yourself? That would be the logical thing to do. The latest Insiders version is quite fast. It takes two to three seconds to load most screens on the store
  • I don't really care to get my Xbox down, hook it up, connect it to this network (I've moved since I last used it), update, enroll in the Insider program, and update again, just to look at the UI for 5 minutes, turn off the console, and put it away again. I'd rather read the opinions of users who have been actively using the console through the various UI changes and see what they think of the evolution of the UI across the console's lifespan.
  • How about take it down (from space) connect it to your fabulous network, update it, turn it off, and then GIVE it to someone that would appreciate it. Boys and girls club, your local community kids group, a day care, etc. Just saying...PEACE!
  • The dashboard is fine. The update they put out earlier this year made it cleaner and easier to navigate but, like any interface, your personal preference would factor into whether you like it or not.
  • Tobey Maguire has really let himself go
  • Lol I was thinking the say thing. He looks just like him. It could be his brother or something
  • Whoa, that John Hildebrandt is his spitting image! (~30s in to first video if anyone wants to see)
  • How rude to pick on someone like that. That is clearly Elijah Wood.
  • This is funny
  • I play on both the PS4 and the Xbox and it seems like everything on Xbox requires one or two extra steps than PS4. The UI has improved alot over the years but it is very sluggish sometimes.
  • Actually I think it's much quicker now than it used to be.
  • Okay, I think it's time for Microsoft to get serious. I understand the whole pricing war thing they're doing with Sony, (speaking up, where is it written that they can't go back and change the price if their competitors price is lower than theirs? Is there some sacred gamers god code of honor that doesn't allow them not to do that?. Just saying) but what's stopping them from demonstrating what the system can do. At the very least they should show a comparison between current gen and next gen graphics and performance. Show some demos of instant resume on multiple games. I would imagine a lot of people aren't even aware of that capability. if they really want to win back gamers, they need to show what they are working with.
  • Will this updated UI be only for the Series X or for the Xbox One S and the Xbox One X? I hope we'll be able to download clips and captures on the PC and mobile Xbox apps.
  • Pretty sure it's for both the old and new versions of Xbox.