Xbox One testing new messaging, Game Pass features and more for Insiders soon

Microsoft today revealed details on some new features coming to the 1905 update for Xbox One. Set to hit the Alpha Skip Ahead and Alpha rings tomorrow, the new updates incorporate several changes for Game Pass, friends lists, and messaging.

Here's a quick breakdown:

  • Play Later: Xbox Game Pass subscribers will now be able to create a list of games they want to play later from the Game Pass library. The feature is meant to make the growing Game Pass catalogue a little easier to manage based on your priorities.
  • Where your friends are playing: An updated version of your friends list will now show where your friends are playing games in addition to what they're playing. The feature will display a PC icon when a friend is playing on PC, an Xbox icon for Xbox, and a mobile icon for mobile devices.
  • Message requests: Messaging will now prioritize message requests from "friends and anyone you want to communicate with." Messages from those you don't know will be filtered out into a separate "message requests" tab. There is a downside to this process, however, as Microsoft says previous group messages will be lost in this transition.
  • Better game and app sorting: Microsoft previously described this feature, but games in your "My games & apps" section will no longer be sorted according to articles like "a," "an" and "the" if they are at the beginning of the game's name. "The Witcher," for example, will now be sorted alphabetically under "W" instead of "T."

In addition to the above features, Microsoft says that there will be some other experimental features that may appear for certain Insiders to check out.

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