The February update for Microsoft’s Xbox One console is available for download right now, and it includes a variety of visible changes as well as a controller update.
The controller update, which will require you to make a one-time connection via USB from your controller to your Xbox, will improve stability of the overall connection as well as making it much faster to sync the controller to the system. It took four seconds to connect a controller in the past and will now take around two. Those two seconds add up over time, and they seem like an eternity when your controller dies mid-battle.
The update for the controller can be initiated by going to your Xbox One’s Settings menu and into the Devices & Accessories section.
The update also improves party chat. Party invites show you more information more quickly, rather than making you wait for it to scroll up onto the screen. New icons have also been added to show you more information about the status of whether your chat connection is impaired by your network as well as who’s currently speaking in the chat.
Non-U.S. users will see a variety of updates to the system’s TV functionality, especially those who own the Xbox One Digital TV Tuner. You’ll be able to stream TV to your Android and Windows Phone devices in addition to getting access to TV Trending functionality. Users in all market will see improvements to the Xbox One’s ability to control and interact with the other hardware in your home theater via the Kinect and IR blasting functions of the system.
Game hubs, which can be curated by a game’s publishers, will aggregate leaderboard and social activity into one place alongside any bonus content that might be available. If this is taken care of by Microsoft and various publishers, it could be a great feature for the system, or could end up put aside completely in very short order.
Finally, tile transparency will let you get a better look at your sweet background image without making the Xbox One interface harder to use.
If your system hasn’t already pulled down the update automatically, you can get it by going to Settings, then System, where you can manually initiate the update.