Xbox One November Update Brings Custom Backgrounds And Twitter Integration

@grg / 11:30 am PST • November 8, 2014

Another month, another pack of shiny new features heading for the Xbox One.

It’s not the most exciting update the One has received to date, and it sounds like this one will be the last big update for the year… both of those facts likely because Microsoft doesn’t want to risk introducing any big bugs right before the oh-so-important Christmas season.

A 3-minute video below runs through a bulk of the new stuff, but in case you prefer good old fashioned words — here’s the best of whats new:

You can now set your own custom backgrounds that’ll show on your Xbox One’s homescreen. Just pop your JPGs or PNGs onto a USB drive, and hit “Set as background” while looking at the photo in the Media Player. You can have a different background for each user profile
The location/bio line tied to your Xbox Live account has returned, absent since the jump from the 360 to the One.
“Showcase” items allow you to highlight your favorite achievements and recorded game clips. These will show whenever other players look at your profile.
Twitter support (sort of): The Twitter support is a bit lacking, but it’s a start. You can now tweet recorded game clips and view what TV shows are trending in the Xbox One’s built-in TV guide thing. It’s not the proper Twitter client that stumbled onto the Xbox 360 near the end of that console’s run, but hopefully they expand on it a bit in 2015.
You can now use your phone to start downloading “Games With Gold” games (the free games Microsoft gives away each month) onto your Xbox One back home. Handy if you’re stuck at work and had the sudden realization that today is the last day to claim your free game.