We will get to the Xbox One dashboard changes, but the removal of Cortana is the big news year. It furthers the demise of the virtual assistant as a consumer fronted tool. It’s a situation that has been brewing for some time. Cortana was struggling to compete against alternatives such as Alexa. Microsoft decided to transform the service into productivity assistant. While that may be different/deeper integration in Windows 10, on Xbox One (a fully consumer-focused platform), Cortana’s demise seemed inevitable. With its new Xbox One dashboard tweaks, Microsoft says users “can no longer talk to Cortana via your headset”. It is worth noting you can still use Cortana for turning the Xbox One on through its Xbox Skill integration app on iOS, Windows, and Android.
Dashboard Changes
Microsoft’s Xbox One dashboard changes also include quicker access to Xbox Game Pass titles, Xbox Community, the Microsoft Store, and Mixer on the home page. “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 center,” explains Bradley Rossetti, Microsoft’s Xbox Insider chief. “With this new experimental Home design, the first thing you’ll notice is we’ve removed the Twists from the top of Home in favor of separate buttons that launch your gaming experiences.” At the moment, the new dashboard experience is in testing on the Xbox Insider Program Alpha and Alpha Skip Ahead rings.
