The new Xbox dashboard is here for Alpha Ring insiders: here's what's new and what's broken

If you're in the Alpha ring, you're in for a fun time!

[shinrock]

Its a lot faster.

[DARK_WOLF]

I really like all the changes to the guide and menus ect but im really not a fan of the main homescreen with suggested friends and other crap im NEVER going to click on and that big grey bar.

Hopefully it improves before release from all the feedback theyl be getting.

It looks super fast too which is great!

[LandoCalrissiano]

Usually I agree. I'm very anti ad/suggestion. Takes space and resources to load that up. However, for the first time, I've used the ads, suggestions and trials that have popped up on the Xbox. Surprised even myself. So for the most part, I agree, however, I've never been this integrated into news, topics, sales, etc.
Yeah I saw a sample of it, seems like they made it peppy! MS has some crazy engineers if they can continue to find ways to speed up software. Like, you'd think at some point there'd have to be a limit you can do without changing hardware, but speeding up your old hardware without creating more problems than you're solving? That's challenging. Kudos.

[UnHoly_One]

I'm surprised I'm reading so many positive comments.

Have you all used it or just seen the videos?

Because I used it last night and it's the worst UI I've ever used. I hate practically every change they made.

The home screen itself is about 75% wasted space now, the guide, while faster to open up to things, requires more button presses and more navigating around to get to the same things. It opens little windows on top of windows when accessing some things now, and it's terrible.

The activity feed looks like facebook's worst nightmare. Instead of one column of equally sized boxes, descending by time as you go backwards, now it is boxes of different sizes, in rows that are all pressed together and it is really hard to follow.

The one positive thing I can say is they made the settings screen look a little cleaner.

And yes, it is faster overall, but the amount of wasted space and extra steps to do the same things kind of cancels out some of the speed.

[x_xavier_x]

@Unholy_One

"the worst UI I've ever used"

See, you blew it right there. No one is going to take you seriously if you insist on using such hyperbolic bunk. I get...it's the internet. Everything just HAS TO BE the absolute best or unadulterated worst. But perhaps you could try to be a bit less biased in you assessment. Because you're not doing yourself any favors by making such ludicrous statements.

[UnHoly_One]

I'm not exaggerating, it's the worst I've ever used.

If you are in the insider program, go the forums and look at the nearly 100% negative feedback it has gotten so far.

I'm not the only one that thinks it is terrible.

[mark_parch]

totally agree love the changed to the guide but they definitely need to take some things off the home screen like suggested friends and activities . just give us what we have recently been playing and 1 ad preferably discounted games

[JeffGUNZ]

Good, the last year or so the speed has been an issue.

[Christopher]

All that wasted space on the home page... Just annoying and a huge step backwards for me. Home page is the most important one, you should be improving it, not failing to utilize it.

Edit: and the speed hasn't been an issue for ages. Don't know why people are so fixated on immediate results when the focus should be on better organization and more organic navigation.

[Christopher]

This guy's mock up from Reddit today of the home page is exactly what I would love to see: http://i.imgur.com/LyEcquw....

I have no clue why they hid the sidebar and require the Xbox button to view it now.

[Sonic_Vs_Mario]

Phil Spencer was right. The new fluent design is alot faster than Xbox One old UI, miles faster than PlayStation 4 UI definitely. Everything is in the guide as well.

[Christopher]

Faster, but with more clicks needed to do things before in many cases.

[christocolus]

This looks nice.

[ichdich]

Its a lot faster then PS4 UI now

[LexHazard79]

yes it looks that way. But how when it seems as tho Xbox UI has alot more going on. Anyway glad the new one is faster.

[bu3ouf91]

They keep shifting the User interface design that easily ? 😑

[CitizenFour]

Kinda wish I was still in the Alpha, but a few times I had issues that would interfere with my gaming.
So I opted for the Beta ring.

Looking forward to trying this.

[x_xavier_x]

I have encountered an issue with the new dashboard. The reference levels of the video output seem to have been corrupted on certain apps. I noticed that when using Plex and VLC the black border of widescreen video footage (2.35:1) now appears light grey. The strange thing is that the issue does not occur on other apps such as Netflix. This is similar to the incident that occurred in the early days of the 360.

Has anyone else noticed this problem?

[Atomicjuicer]

BRING BACK SNAP!

[Lostbytes]

Oh god pls, NO! One of Microsoft's worst decisions was to allocate 10% of system resources to the awful perk, that no one used. (that's one of the reasons they removed it.)

[Atomicjuicer]

It was a distinctive and useful feature that influenced my purchase and should have been a user toggle. Lile boost mode on my pro.

But no. Microsoft and people like you know best.

[Lostbytes]

It is snappier, till you get the 3 sec pause as it losses focus. The new mini guide is a step back. Need a Min of 2 button press to see how many people are on. 7 button presses if you miss a notification. the nested menus are horrible, b button back to friends resets the list. My Biggest gripe it the ability to pin a user to your dash, even if they are not your friend/follower. THIS FEELS VERY STALKER LIKE! I WANT THIS GONE OR THE ABILITY TO BLOCK SOMEONE FROM PINNING ME!