Five Features the Xbox One April Update Doesn’t Bring Us

It’s no secret that the Xbox One launched without a lot of core features, ranging from no notification to tell you a friend was online, to not even showing you how much battery life your controller has left. Fortunately, a couple of updates later a lot of the issues have been solved. The just revealed April update is set to add even more features such as finally adding notifications when a friend is online.

But it’s not all good news as there are still missing features the Xbox One really needs. Here are 5 issues that I think Microsoft needs to hurry up and address.

1. You cant send voice messages

Voice messages have always been the best way of communicating on the Xbox 360 if you can’t be in a party. Simply press the record button, say what you want to say; and hit send – it couldn’t be any easier or more effective. Not only is it quicker to speak than to type out a message, it also allows you to convey emotions or be sarcastic without worrying if the recipient will understand.

So why cant you send voice messages on the Xbox One? The honest answer is: I’m not really sure. I can see why you can’t send voice messages form the Xbox One to the 360, due to different voice chat encoding and other technical wizardry, but surely the ability to send a voice message between two Xbox One’s shouldn’t be a issue. The sad truth is that it doesn’t look like voice messages are coming any time soon, unless we keep pestering all the Xbox social media accounts.

2. You cant speak out codes/messages

As we aren’t going to be getting voice messages any time soon, the next best thing would be the ability to speak out a message and have it typed by the Xbox One itself. Not only would it make sending messages a lot easier but it could also be implemented for redeeming codes. Instead of having to type in all 25 digits you could just read out the code and have it entered for you, wouldn’t that make your life so much easier?

Unfortunately this is a feature we probably wont be seeing for quite a while as it will take a lot of work to build. The Kinect software is currently able to recognize certain phrases and commands, not the whole English dictionary. But there is hope, if Microsoft’s rumored Siri competitor ever comes into existence I would happily put money on it coming to the Xbox One, and this could add the ability to dictate to the console.

3. You can’t use an external hard drive

I know this has been promised – and has even been acknowledged this week as coming in the future – but the fact it isn’t available already is almost criminal. When both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were revealed, everyone was convinced further down the line a 1TB version of each console would be revealed. Unfortunately this never happened and we are all stuck with a measly 500GB of storage, which let’s be honest, is not enough considering the size of the new generation of game installs. The obvious solution to this issue would be to plug in a external hard dive, but you cant do that either.

We do know that this feature is coming, hopefully quite soon, but what I don’t understand is why it has taken so long. From a technical perspective it shouldn’t be that difficult to implement so the only real reason I can think of for the delay is that Microsoft want to make money from it. Anyone remember when USB flash drive support was added to the Xbox 360? Microsoft launched some expensive, Xbox branded flash drives in order to try and make a bit of extra money, and I can only assume they will do the same with external hard drives.

4. There is still no BBC iPlayer app

I am fully aware that many of you will disagree with my next statement, but I’m saying it anyway. The BBC produces some of the best TV entertainment in the world. Shows such as Sherlock, Dr. Who, Top Gear, and a guilty pleasure of mine Waterloo Road are all top quality programs. What is almost as good as the shows is the fact I can watch them whenever I want by way of the BBC iPlayer, which is easily one of the best on demand services out there. But it’s not available on the Xbox One yet!

BBC iPlayer has an app on almost every other device: the PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, iOS, ChromeCast, Smart TV’s – the list goes on. So why is it not available on the Xbox One? We do know an iPlayer app is coming, and it has been rumoured to be coming quite soon. However, other rumours suggest the app has run into serious development issues involving Kinect integration. Obviously none of these rumours have been confirmed, but it’s looking like we may be without iPlayer for a while.

5. It cant play 3D Blu Rays (among other things)

While the 3D revolution may not have worked out as many had hoped, but there are still a lot of people out there with 3DTVs and 3D Blu-Rays, unfortunately these people wont be able to enjoy their 3D Blu-Rays on the Xbox One (or the PS4 for that matter), as the format is not supported. 3D Blu-Rays aren’t the only format not supported, though, and you can’t play MP3s either, or any media from an external device for that matter.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like these issues will be solved anytime soon, and the reason is quite simple. It’s not very high on the priority list. Sure it would be nice to have, but I would much rather be able to send voice messages or use an external hard dive for extra storage. Despite having a heavy focus on media and entertainment, adding these features offers little value for Microsoft especially when you consider adding MP3 support would probably result in less Xbox Music sales.

This article is intended as a bit of fun, but also to point out there are ways to improve the next-gen systems (both of them!). What do you want to see come to Xbox One?