Xbox Insiders in the Alpha ring will receive a huge update today, here's what's new [Update]

By Jez Corden
last updated

Users on the Xbox Insider Program's Alpha ring are about to get a huge, huge update.

As teased earlier in the week, users in the Xbox One's Alpha ring will be able to begin testing custom gamerpics, Arena, new activity feed features, and much, much more. This is the biggest update the Insider program has seen for a while, and brings us ever closer to general distribution.

Here's everything that's new, fixed, and broken in the upcoming Alpha build.

Update March 25, 2017: I just want to note, as it says in the build notes below that not every feature listed below will be available immediately. They'll be rolled out in stages over the coming days and weeks. But this update will at least lay the ground work.

DETAILS

OS version released: rs2_release_xbox_1704.170321-1900

Available: 6:00PM PDT 3/24 (1:00AM GMT 25/3)

NEW FEATURES:

Welcome to 1704 on Xbox One! This month we're rolling out several feature updates inspired by your feedback.

NOTE: Not all planned features for this update are available at this time.

Arena on Xbox Live

  • World of Tanks fans will be able to participate in new tournaments on their Xbox One, created by ESL and powered by Arena on Xbox Live.
  • Discover tournaments from your Xbox One or Xbox app on Windows 10, get notifications when your match is ready, jump directly into your match on the Xbox One, enjoy automatic results reporting, and show off the results on your activity feed.

Profile and Activity Feed

  • Custom gamerpics are finally here! From your console, Windows 10 PC, or mobile phone, update your gamerpic with a custom image. We're excited to bring this top fan-requested feature to Xbox Live and expect it to be in preview longer than other features to ensure it's great for everyone when released.
  • New 'Join broadcast' button in your profile, one of the many ways to access the game stream of someone broadcasting their gameplay.
  • Your profile will display your Arena tournament history and upcoming tournaments.
  • In your Activity Feed, we're adding the ability to hide individual posts, pin posts to the top of your feed, and filter posts by friends, games or Clubs.

Clubs and Looking for Group (LFG)

  • When you create an LFG post, as the owner you will be able to see new vetting cards that include hero stats from gamers interested in joining your party. Hero stats are contextual to the game you're playing, showing you relevant stats like kill/death ratio, rank, or score.
  • Achievement hunters, this one is for you! You will be able to search LFG posts from the Achievements tab, related to the Achievement you're trying to finish.
  • We're adding the number of open LFG posts to the Game Hub and Club Hub headers.
  • Have you made a successful LFG post that you want to create again? Now you can see previous LFG posts that you have created, participated or shown interest in, and can copy them to create new posts.
  • When creating an LFG post, see all the recent tags you've used and easily select them.
  • Club owners can upload custom images for their Club logo and Club background. Just like custom gamerpics, we expect this to be in preview longer than other features to ensure it's great for everyone when released.
  • Club owners and admins will be identified and labeled in their text posts to better help them stand out and manage their community.
  • Club owners and admins can pin a post at the top of their Club feed.

My Games and Apps, and Settings

  • In 'My Games and Apps,' we're adding the ability to filter your game library by platform – Xbox One and Xbox 360.
  • Captive Portal support for wireless internet is coming to Xbox One, which allows for Wi-Fi authentication through a browser. Great for colleges, hotels, or public Wi-Fi locations.
  • In the Settings, we're adding the ability to select Kinect auto-zoom for Beam and Twitch broadcasts, as well as for the Skype app.
  • On the Xbox app for Windows 10, we're adding the option to select the audio input and output sources for Party chat.

KNOWN ISSUES:

Settings - Display & sound

  • The Audio output page is under construction and some of the new settings are not yet functional. New support is planned for Dolby Atmos for home theater, Dolby Atmos for headphones, and more in upcoming builds. An announcement will be made when these new features are ready to try out; enabling these settings now will have no effect.

Wireless Display

  • The Wireless Display app fails to launch and immediately crashes to Home.

The Xbox branch of the Windows 10 Creators Update is getting ever closer to general distribution. Tomorrow, we'll do a video walkthrough of the newest features so those not in the Alpha ring can get a look!

Jez Corden
Jez Corden
Co-Managing Editor

Jez Corden a Managing Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by caffeine. Follow on Twitter @JezCorden and listen to his Xbox Two podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!

35 Comments
  • Oh this is great news
  • yes this is so great. 
  • 3GB BIG
  • But nothing for ring 4 not even quests' for a long time now
  • Shouldn't be long now, I think Ring 4 is more of a release preview ring.
  • ring 4 is going get the builds at the end
  • I'm on ring 3 and I still got *****. I've done all the quests and surveys. I think it has something to do with leaving critical feedback after the last update. I'm serving detention in the basement. 3 years I've been in the preview program (since the beginning)
  • did someone invite you to the program?
  • No, I signed up when they were first handing out memberships when the program for started. I did just finally get my update tho on Friday.
  • This is orgasmic!
  • How do you change your picture?
  • I'll get an article up when the patch goes live
  • Cheers fella. I have notice that everything is much quicker, the guide is good. But my achievements don't all show up in my feed. Damned large update though. Hopefully Game Pass rolls out before e3, someone on a forum yesterday said spring finishes 20 June. Seems years away.
  • Hmm..
  • The patch is live. Can't find the article.
  • I got the update but can't for the life of me find the custom gamertag option
  • Big update... this thing is 3.6GB
  • Mine was a fewhundredMB
  • Got the update and from what I see nothing new was added.
  • You can select to show between Xbox 360 and Xbox One games in My Games & Apps!
  • Wow a 3.6GB update. And i couldn't find a single new feature! I guess like it says in the description above, the new content will be added periodically. Oh well on we march
  • 3.6Gb....almost the same as a Windows 10 ISO xD
  • What about Wireless display? Will it be fixed ever?
  • it's still an issue, they're aware of it. KNOWN ISSUES: • Settings - Display & sound The Audio output page is under construction and some of the new settings are not yet functional. New support is planned for Dolby Atmos for home theater, Dolby Atmos for headphones, and more in upcoming builds. An announcement will be made when these new features are ready to try out; enabling these settings now will have no effect. • Wireless Display The Wireless Display app fails to launch and immediately crashes to Home.
  • no probly not. you actualy used it? it rarely ever worked ..
  • Ok. So where are the instructions on using a personal gamer pic?
  • Y Am I not able to use my storage for things other than games? If I only knew this was gonna b an issue i wouldn't have bought an Xbox one s, I have 1TB model please allow users to copy Media to storage... Music pictures video etc.
  • They just released a file Explorer with the last update, you should be able to store music files, video, images, etc onto your xbox drive now through that app. File explorer
  • Or you can use VLC to move media to the internal storage.
  • i looked on the pc didn't see the ability on beta or xbox yet. ill check later on on the xbox. 
  • If you're talking about the custom gamer pic, I didn't see it on the XBONE either. Perhaps it has not been implemented.
  • Waiting for the video walkthrough.
  • I just wish they'd update the crappy media player app, side scrolling through all my files take for-fkn-ever! The default media player app on PS4 is way better. I couldn't care less for any of these other 'big updates' which are just sugar coated social features. /endrant
  • Just use VLC, much better.
  • Ah yeah, good tip, thanks!