Jan ArrezaMicrosoft will be dropping the Cortana digital assistant from its Xbox One, while also redesigning the ‘Home’ experience as part of yet another dashboard revamp to give a more “streamlined user interface”.
This follows the recent trend of Microsoft dropping Cortana from its product offerings in favour of other digital voice assistant technology.
Reported on Xbox Wire, Xbox Insider team lead Bradley Rossetti said the new layout looks sleeker and should speed up the user interface.
With the new redesign, the Twists from the top of the Home page have been removed and replaced with separate buttons.
The new dashboard will also include quicker access to Xbox Games Pass titles, Microsoft’s Mixer service, Xbox Community feature and the Microsoft Store.
“The Home on Xbox One is the first thing you see when you turn on your Xbox One, and we want to deliver an easy and seamless experience for you to navigate your console,” Rossetti explains.
“We’ve heard your feedback and have continued to iterate on Home to get you into your gaming experiences faster and keeping more of your content front and centre.”
“The new experimental Home rolls out this week to select Xbox Insiders in our Alpha and Alpha Skip Ahead rings.”
In terms of voice commands, Microsoft will also be changing how a user interacts with the Xbox, shifting to a cloud-based assistant rather than the standard on-console model.
Currently, users issue commands to the console via Cortana through their headset, but with the new setup, users will have to command their Xbox by using other methods such as through the Cortana app.
“We are now further evolving the way we support voice commands on Xbox and are moving away from on-console experiences to cloud-based assistant experiences,” Rossetti continued.
“We’ll also continue to improve the Xbox Skill across supported digital assistants and continue expanding our Xbox voice capabilities in the future based on fan feedback.”
“Starting this week, this update will roll out to our Alpha Skip Ahead ring and will fully roll out to all users this fall.”
Microsoft has warned that the update will temporarily disable dictation via the Xbox One virtual keyboard.
The company is currently working on a fix for this issue.
