If you’re in the XBOX Insider Program, you’ve got some fun new toys to play with starting today. Microsoft just rolled out an XBOX Insider Update batch that touch three different parts of the XBOX experience: how your Home screen looks, how you manage local save storage, and how you interact with your profile badges. It’s a nice mix of quality-of-life fixes and a little bit of nostalgia thrown in for longtime fans.
According to the official XBOX Wire post, most of these features are rolling out first to Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha ring Insiders, with a few updates available to everyone right away. So depending on which Insider ring you’re in, your mileage may vary on when you actually see these show up on your console.
Cleaning Up Your Home Screen
One of the more requested changes here is more control over the Recent Games and Apps row at the top of Home. If you’ve ever wanted to just remove that Play History tile or clear out a game you’re done with, now you can. Just hit the Menu button on any item in that list and remove it. It’s a small change, but if you’re someone who likes a tidy dashboard, this one’s for you.
There’s also a neat new immersive background mode. Press the right thumbstick button anywhere on Home and the entire UI fades away, letting your dynamic or custom background take over the whole screen. Hit any button to snap back to Home. It’s basically a screensaver mode for your dashboard, and it’s a nice touch if you’ve put effort into picking a cool background.
Finally, Some Control Over Local Save Storage
This is probably the most practically useful update in the bunch. Anyone who’s owned an XBOX for a while knows the pain of hitting a “not enough space” error when trying to save progress, even though your saves are backed up to the cloud. Local storage fills up, and until now there wasn’t a great way to see what was actually eating that space.
Now you can head to Settings > System > Storage > Manage local game saves to view, sort, and delete local saves you’re not currently using. You can nuke a single bloated save file or clear everything unused in one go. And don’t worry, your progress isn’t going anywhere. Your latest saves stay backed up to the XBOX network and will resync automatically the next time you launch that game.
Profile Badges Get Some Much-Needed Context
Profile badges have always been a fun way to show off your XBOX history, but let’s be honest, half of them have been mystery icons for years. That’s getting fixed. Now when you tap into a badge on any profile, you’ll see high-resolution artwork plus details on exactly when and how it was earned. Whether you’re checking out your own collection or snooping on a friend’s profile, it’s way easier to actually understand what you’re looking at.
A Surprise Badge for Day One XBOX One Owners
Here’s the part that’s going to hit some feels for longtime fans. As part of the ongoing celebration of XBOX’s 25th anniversary, Microsoft is handing out a new commemorative Day One badge to anyone who unlocked the original Day One achievement back when the XBOX One launched on November 22, 2013. If you were one of those people who bought the console at launch and redeemed that achievement code, congrats, you’ve got a shiny new badge waiting for you.
Wishlist Gets a Small but Welcome Fix
Last but not least, your wishlist is about to get a lot less cluttered. Starting now, any game you buy will automatically drop off your wishlist instead of just sitting there. Small change, but a genuinely useful one if you’re the type who wishlists everything.
How to Join the XBOX Insider Program
If you’re not already testing these features and want in, you can download the XBOX Insider Hub for XBOX Series X|S and XBOX One or grab it on Windows PC. Once you’re in, you’ll get early access to updates like these before they hit the general public. You can also share feedback directly through aka.ms/XBOXplayervoice, or hop into the XBOX Insider subreddit if you run into any issues or just want to talk shop with other Insiders.
As always, keep an eye on this space for the latest XBOX news as it drops.
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