The October software update for Xbox One rolled out to consoles yesterday, and it added even more upgrades to the Snap system, the new Friends section and Microsoft's own security standards.
Every Xbox One update seems to add just a little more to the Snap function, and this month's update certainly follows that pattern. Double tapping the Xbox button will now bring up a simple Snap menu where players can open a new app in Snap or close the currently Snapped app. While in a game, players can also easily record the last 30 seconds of gameplay from this Snap menu.
The Xbox team also used this update to introduce the Friends section. The Friends section allows players to see what their friends are up to on Xbox and what games they've been playing. The Friends section also includes a monthly Gamerscore leaderboard, so you can passively brag to your friends about how many hours you sank into 100-percenting Shadow of Mordor. Speaking of Achievements, the updated Achievements app now lets players roll over certain Achievements to see how many of their friends have unlocked it and then share their own unlocked Achievements with custom captions.
Though it's not necessarily part of the update per se, October also holds an upgrade in security for Xbox accounts. Later this month, Microsoft will start asking players to give them an alternate email address or phone number to be used in the case of a lost password. This security step up should only ask players for this information once, making it a minimally intrusive way of beefing up the protection around Xbox accounts.
The October update also includes upgrades for the Xbox One's media player and SmartGlass functionality. For a full list of update notes, head over to Xbox Wire.
