While the Xbox Series X has been an impressive piece of hardware since its launch in 2020, players have consistently voiced their issues with its outdated dashboard.
Hosting the same dash and UI as the Xbox One, it’s been a constant cause for debate among players, especially since the Xbox Series X is designed to take generational leaps over Microsoft’s family of consoles.
Larry Hyrb (@majornelson) tweeted to announce that an update is starting to roll out across a subset of Xbox consoles to overhaul the search page with several quality-of-life improvements, such as visible filter categories and gallery-style search results, but it’s not the update that I have been waiting for.
Starting to roll out today to a subset of Xbox consoles – you will be able to discover a refresh of the console search page. This includes a sleek new look, gallery-style results, visible filter categories navigable with RB/LB, the option to ‘search on YouTube’ within the Movies… pic.twitter.com/ChJk4Oh6YaMarch 22, 2023
A long awaited change
Although it is a visual improvement to the search page, in response to the tweet announcing the silent update, some people have been quick to express their disinterest and disappointment in the update. Several users went as far as to state that they see very little point in the update since the store page for both the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S now looks significantly better than the home screen.
But despite the efforts of consumers to express their opinion of the existing dashboard and how the console pair would benefit from a complete overhaul, there are currently no plans to roll out a further update to target this, and given the console is now almost three years old, it’s hard to believe that a new dashboard will be implemented in the near future.
While the current Xbox Series X and Series S dash is simple to navigate, especially for anyone who previously had an Xbox One, an up-to-date dashboard to coincide with the current-gen expectations would help define the console further. The PS5's UI was a smart and fast evolution on the PS4, so it is disappointing to see that Microsoft hasn't followed suit yet.
Regarding the new update for the search page, the UI has a more sleek feel in certain areas, which could easily translate to a dashboard overhaul, and it does help the console look the part. However, these changes have only emphasized the need to stray from the Xbox One interface and create something more lustrous across the entire console rather than waiting until the launch of the next Xbox.
